Something Borrowed
by I-got-zapped
Summary: A nurse from Wyoming is sucked into a world completely foregin to the one she knows. With a looming threat hanging over the fate of Earth, can Alyssa help save her world, and herself, in the process? AU where Jazz lives, just because. Starts in the first movie, will progress through the rest of the movies. JazzxOC
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story! This** **is an AU** **story** **where Jazz lives and survives all the other movies that** **take place** **; from** **the very beginning the first movie, continu** **ing** **through Revenge of the Fallen, and further on. I am going to try to keep the science and mechanics as real as possible, but I am not an expert; I actually know next to nothing about mechanics. I'm not perfect, so please no flames, but constructive criticism is more than welcome.** **Also, be wary of Alyssa's (and Jazz's) potty mouth.** **I will try to update once a week, but that might vary due to life and whatnot. I am** **also** **looking for a beta reader if anyone is interested. Thanks again, and enjoy!**

 _ **I don't own Transformers, The Iron Giant, or Song of the Sparrow (which is a fantastic book b**_ _ **y**_ _ **t**_ _ **he**_ _ **w**_ _ **ay**_ _ **, if you're into medieval romance shtuff)**_

Chapter 1

There was nothing as boring as driving through the plains.

Living an hour away from civilization was certainly a blessing and a curse, just as all peace comes with a price. But watching fields abruptly end and seeing the forest begin, watching trees turn to tall grass, and pulling up the gravel driveway to a picture-perfect house overlooking a small lake just outside of Yellowstone Park made it all worth it. As the truck kicked up a cloud of sand behind it, the driver looked out The window as a house came into view. It was small, weather-worn, and the once white paint was chipped and faded from the sand. A large wrap-around porch with small wicker chairs facing the lake gave the house a timeless look.

And to her, it was home.

The old truck rumbled down the sandy gravel driveway, and grumbled to a halt as she parked it just outside the small home. Stepping out of the blue 1947 Chevy EP 1/2 ton, a slightly rusted relic from her late grandfather, a nurse wearing a name tag reading 'Alyssa' clumsily gathered her things and moved to open the door, squeaking slightly as her head bumped the window. Her tennis shoes crunched on the gravel underneath her feet as she shut the creaky drivers-side door, and pale fingers wrestled with the dark brown curls currently trapped within the ponytail. With a triumphant 'ah ha!', the dark mane of hair was released and fell past her shoulders in an unruly mess. Brushing away her bangs, Alyssa climbed the steps of the porch and made her way to the back door. She fumbled with her key and swore under her breath as the door handle refused to move. She shook the knob and jiggled it repeatedly before throwing her weight on the old door before it opened to let her inside.

The inside of the house looked a bit like a bomb had gone off inside a library. Books covered every open surface. They were scattered everywhere, in every corner of the small house. Some were on the floor in stacks, others were just strewn around the room with miscellaneous papers sticking out of them. When she was young, her father had instilled a deep love for literature and books of all sorts, and it was a love that continued to live within her to this day. The young woman loved to get lost all the worlds that books contained. She loved to love the lives of the characters, to feel what they feel, to live in a world outside of her own. Because, honestly, what can be more boring than real life?

Alyssa let loose a large sigh as she shut the creaky door and collapsed into her squishy worn armchair after pulling a rogue book out of the cushions. She contemplated picking up where she had left off reading in the misplaced book, but her stomach had other ideas. It growled insistently, demanding SOMETHING edible. She deposited the book on the kitchen table next to the chair and looked around her kitchen. Opening up her refrigerator, Alyssa took one look and shut it with a sigh.

"Shit." She had forgotten that she needed to get groceries after work. Looking around the desolate kitchen once more as if waiting for food to magically appear, Alyssa grabbed an apple from the bowl on her table and kicked her shoes off in the direction of the door and walked up the narrow stairway to her small bedroom and flopped onto her bed.

She crunched on the piece of fruit while pulling out her laptop and browsing her email, filtering through the junk mail. There were old bank statements, news updates, something about mass solar activity, terrorist attacks, a broken gas line somewhere in Virginia. Nothing too new. Same old ordinary routine. And Alyssa St. James was as ordinary as they come. She had long, dark curly hair and almost-abnormally pale skin, with dark, unreadable brown eyes. She was neither skinny nor fat, and while not fit per say, she was no slouch either. She had a very ordinary childhood, no special skills, no extraordinary looks, or mind-blowing intelligence, though she had an incredible sense of motivation and self-discipline that allowed her to finish nursing school in less than half the usual time it took others. Even with that, she was just a simple nurse that worked at a small emergency room in a small town. She enjoyed what she did, and she was good at it. She had a few friends, a few acquaintances, but mostly kept to herself and her books, not needing constant human company.

In fact, she almost preferred to be without it.

It's the reason she moved out here. The solitude was a sanctuary for her. She found people to generally be obnoxious and irritating with a heavy streak of intolerance thrown in. It was also a place where her racing thoughts could be quieted for a time, where her crippling social anxiety would leave her to be herself without creeping neighbors to question her reclusive nature and gossip about her odd tendencies. Because out here, who would judge you, the buffalo?

Alyssa rolled over and set her laptop on her nightstand, and shrugged off her scrubs in favor of some leggings and an oversized t-shirt. She picked up her spindly munched-on apple core and a worn copy of _Song of the Sparrow_ that was sitting next to the laptop as she shuffled downstairs in her bare feet. Depositing the core in the trash next to the oven and grabbing a blanket off the bench that sat along the wall, and walked out onto the deck with every intention of curling up on the wicker patio chair to read her book. She had just shut the door behind her when a giant brown and white wall of fur leapt on top of Alyssa, sending her to the ground in a heap.

"OW! Oliver, get off me! Go get me your ball, go on," Alyssa told the large dog while picking herself up off the ground. The black dog bounded down the steps back towards the beach and disappeared behind the overgrown grass, leaving just as fast as he arrived.

Oliver, her nearest neighbor's dog, was a two year old mastiff mix with boundless energy. The two had gotten well acquainted with each other when she had found him dragging his owner down her stretch of beach about a year ago. His owner's name was Jonathan, a wiry local school teacher who found the pup on the side of the road where he had been dumped. The massive dog quite frequently got loose so if Oliver was here, Jonathan wasn't far behind with the dogs beloved ball, shouting for him to come back. Since he only lived a quarter-mile down the road, Jonathan would usually take Oliver on walks down her stretch of beach, and Alyssa would usually join them, at his request.

The nurse looked down the beach, and saw the floppy dog towing his owner towards her house. She giggled at the scene, and started to wave. "Hey Jonathan! Having fun?"

An exhausted teacher walked up the stairs, sweating slightly and panting heavily. "Why does he love your house so much? Do you have a jar of treats hidden under the floorboards somewhere?"

"You wish! He just likes me better, don'tcha puppy?" Alyssa knelt down and was scratching the dog behind his ears while Jonathan was giving her a dirty look.

"Yeah, he just knows you'll spoil him rotten! By the way, have you made your decision about tonight?"

Alyssa gave him a puzzled look. "Hmm? Oh, that dinner party you were talking about!" She suddenly became very interested in the worn planks under their feet. "I'm not sure. You know I'm not a social butterfly, and what would I wear, sweatpants? And if we show up together, people will think we're dating, or at least on a date-"

"Would you really be that opposed to the idea? Of dating, I mean?"

Alyssa looked up at Jonathan, who had sat down next to her, and was currently looking straight at her with intense blue eyes.

"What? No, not at all! I just, I don't know, the idea scares me a little, I guess. I've never really been serious relationship before so this is totally new ground for me," she explained. "I don't know what exactly is going on between us, but if there is any chance at all, I would just rather take things slow than jump head-first into them. I don't want to ruin anything we have now."

Jonathan just nodded slowly, and looked at her anxious form next to him. "Don't worry, I understand. I won't wait forever, but just let me know when you're ready." He stood up and brushed off his pants, offering Alyssa a hand up, which she accepted gratefully. "I am still gonna need a date though. Don't worry!" Jonathan held up his hands in surrender as Alyssa gave him a worried look, "We'll just go as friends, I'll introduce you as my super-hot cousin if it makes you feel better!"

Alyssa grinned at that, and gave Oliver one last scratch behind the ears before turning and opening the door to the house, giving in to the young man. "Ok, fine. You got me. I'll go. You better hurry and get cleaned up then, Jonathan. I'll be ready to go at 7:30 sharp. Try not to let the dog out this time."

"It was that obvious?" Jonathan asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Alyssa nodded. "Yeah, I already know that Ollie doesn't run onto the porch unless told to. Try to plan it out better next time. See you at 7:30," she said before shutting the door.

The car was pretty much silent except for the soft drone of the radio in the background. The dinner was hosted by a teacher friend of Jonathan's, who happened to be a total bitch. She was apparently threatened by Alyssa, though the young woman had never even met the psycho, much less do or say anything to piss her off, and she did everything she could to separate and alienate her from Jonathan. The woman even went as far as to recruit the other guests there, all teachers from the same school, to throw some unsavory comments toward the outsider of the company. Fearing the consequences if she retaliated, she stayed silent, which left herself open and vulnerable to their verbal onslaught. Her anxiety, the ever-present demon of her youth, curled around her as her chest tightened in fear and loneliness. And as the night wore on, Alyssa continued to feel more and more unwelcome, regardless of Jonathan's reassurances and attempts to bring her into the closed conversations.

While the party could have been much worse, it wasn't something Alyssa was eager to go to again.

Thanking Jonathan for dropping her off and assuring him that she didn't blame him for his coworkers nasty attitudes, Alyssa walked inside her house and dropped her purse on the floor next to the door. Climbing up the creaky stairs once more, she collapsed onto her bed, cocooning herself within her quilt. She stayed there for a few minutes in an effort to control her shaky breathing and burning eyes before sliding out of the blanket and walking into her small bathroom down the hall. As Alyssa looked into the mirror, the pale face she had become so sick of stared back at her, mocking her with the beauty she would never be able to see. She washed her face, letting the scalding water wash away all the makeup that was layered on, threw her hair into a messy bun, and slipped out of the shimmery silver dress she had worn out. She tossed her flats into her closet, trading them for bare feet, and crawled out of the black leggings she had worn. Scars were striped across her thighs, an angry red burning across the normally milky skin. Throwing on a t-shirt and old boxers, her fingers lingering over the raised lines, Alyssa walked outside and grabbed her blanket she had forgotten on the porch earlier that night, running out onto the beach and spreading it out over the sand.

As the last rays of sunlight left the sky and the stars twinkled into existence, Alyssa sat down and just watched the waves rush up and down the sand. The warm summer breeze tugged at her hair and shirt like a playful child, and the stars winked at her, the waves becoming her own gentle lullaby. She laid back on the blanket, letting the nights events flow away from her.

She knew that her goddamn anxiety got in the way again. Alyssa scrunched into a ball on the wrinkled blanket and buried her head in her knees, hating herself for not being strong enough to fight those awful feelings, angry that she can't even go to a stupid party without making a mess of herself. So in that little ball she blocked herself in, Alyssa fell into a light sleep with the gentle wind tugging at her, and the waves lulling her to sleep, with the stars watching over her.

A flash of light and a loud BOOM literally shook Alyssa from her sleep. Jolted awake, she looked around the beach and up at her house, certain that she would see a smoking crater where her house was. There was an even louder BOOM, and then another, and the sky above her got brighter and brighter until it was blinding. A searing heat boiled the air around where Alyssa was at, and a loud, jet engine-like sound nearly deafened her.

She looked up, trying to re-orient herself and saw a massive meteor soar across the sky and crash into the dark waters of the lake, just a short ways away from where she was sitting. The force of the impact shot now-boiling water into the air as the ground shook violently beneath her feet. Alyssa gave a yelp of pain when some of the molten liquid splashed onto her arms as she shielded her face.

Lowering her burning limbs, Alyssa stared dumbfounded at the water where the meteor landed, which was steaming and bubbling; rapidly cooling whatever had landed there. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what had just happened! A meteor had just sailed through the air, narrowly missing her house (though part of the roof had caught on fire during it's decent) and herself and it crashed, literally, into her backyard!

So as Alyssa looked up at her smoking roof, her burned arm, and let her face fall into her hands while a muffled groan escaped her. Now she would have to deal with the police who will want her record of events multiple times over, the fire department will most likely be tramping through her house looking for further damage, the emergency services are going to poke and prod at her, the news crews will probably pester her for a statement, and the stupid amateur meteor hunters and rock collectors will be crawling all over her property trying to find pieces of the damn thing, on top of the shit night she had already had.

Ugh.

What a fricking nightmare.

She was completely overwhelmed and nothing had even started yet.

Alyssa took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She picked up her blanket and shivered as steady streams of rain had started to sink into her clothes, quickly chilling her down to her bones. Wrapping the sandy blanket around her in an attempt to protect her from moisture, Alyssa turned her back to the lake and began the trek up to her house.

She hadn't even taken a full two steps when a faint clicking and groaning of twisting metal and an almost mechanical creaking that shouldn't be coming from anywhere caused Alyssa to turn around. It was such a strange sound that Alyssa's fearful curiosity was piqued, and she slowly crept towards the lakeshore to investigate as much as her withered courage allowed her to. She walked into the shallows of the lake, wanting to see what was causing the noise.

An intense series of vibrations through the water had Alyssa scurrying back onto the beach as fast as she could, her eyes bugging out her head as a giant hand exploded through the surface of the bubbling water. An arm followed soon after, and before Alyssa could even comprehend what had happened, the meteor she thought she had seen crash into the lake was replaced with a giant, possibly alien, robot. The smooth curves and sharp edges of armor plating steamed as the metal shone under the moonlight.

Alyssa's breath caught in her throat, completely captivated by this being in front of her. She had expected to lay out on the beach for a few hours, go inside and fall asleep in her own bed, and then go to work the next day. Not stare down a giant robot at two in the morning

'Thats it. If I don't die within the next 5 minutes, I am not going to work tomorrow,' Alyssa thought. Her heart felt like it was going to jump right out of her chest! The robot hadn't turned to look at her, it was currently staring out into the distance, but she was too afraid to move in case it decided to squish her or something. But it just looked off into space. If it were a human, Alyssa thought, it almost looks like it would be daydreaming.

After what felt like an eternity, the robot turned around. Its shining blue eyes cast an eerie glow on its face as he seemed to regard her. Alyssa wanted to look away, not wanting to see herself turned into a smear on the sand, but couldn't seem to move. She was frozen. Weather in fear or awe, she couldn't tell. He seemed sense her fear, and he tried to lower himself to her level with his arms held up in surrender when a sharp CRACK and an unpleasant groan of metal sent the him sprawling face-first into the water.

It was actually pretty funny, watching a giant robot fall flat on its face. It shook its head and it tried to stand up once more only to fall onto its knees again. Upon watching the alien struggling to stand in the shallow water, Alyssa's fear quickly turned into concern for it. If it had wanted to hurt her, it would have done so earlier and not been staring off into space. Hopefully it would be willing to accept help without turning her into fish food. Alyssa let go of the wet blanket and tentatively walked forward into the water, shivering as the cold water saturated the already wet material of her clothes, and swam out to the sand bar into deeper water where the alien was at. Swimming up to the robot, Alyssa motioned to come with her towards the shore. "Come with me. I might be able to help you," she said.

The robot cocked his head sideways, almost like a curious dog, and nodded that he understood her and started to crawl forward towards shore. He didn't sense anything menacing from her as she cut through the cold water, looking back at him every so often to make sure he was following her. He quickly accessed the wireless signals in the area, grasping the basic framework of the language used in this region of the world. "Thank you."

Alyssa's head jerked back to look at him. His voice was deep but youthful, with a slight accent and quite frankly, it startled her more than she would like to admit. One last kick through the water sent her back scraping into the sand of the beach, telling her they had made it to shore. As Alyssa stood up to head back to her house, she turned around. "How do you know english? You literally landed here less than five minutes ago," she said as she faced him.

He had just begun to crawl onto the sand behind her and was trying to stand on his good leg as he pointed upwards to the sky. "Tha internet." he said simply. "Ah can tap into those signals and integrate the basic language into the communications center in my processor, allowing me to talk with you like you would with others of your kind. At least, thats the watered down version." he finished. Not having the mental energy to try to understand the intricacies, she just decided to nod and accept it. The fact that she was talking to an alien robot that landed in her backyard was already enough to send her mental capacities over the edge without trying to figure out how or why. "I'm just happy I don't have to talk to you like I would a two-year old," Alyssa told him as she walked up the coast to her small house. It had started to rain more heavily now, and looking at her house Alyssa saw that the small fire that had started on her roof was put out, with what looked like only cosmetic damage to the shingles. She breathed a small sigh of relief knowing it was something she would probably be able to fix on her own.

The awkward mechanical shuffling behind her told Alyssa that the robot was still following her towards her house. Which was a problem, now that she was thinking. She wanted to help him, but he was at risk of Jonathan seeing him the next morning, and Alyssa didn't really want to think about what the government would do to him if they found him. She had seen enough movies, _The Iron Giant_ first coming to mind, to know why that would be a very bad idea. Thinking for a moment, letting the rain wash the sand off her clothes, and walked over to the robot. "There's an abandoned barn about a mile up the coast. If you can make it, I'll meet you there as soon as I can."

Nodding to her, he chirped "Hopefully I'll be there by then." With that, he turned away and started to limp up the coast, with blue liquid nearly pouring out of his leg.

Alyssa watched him for a moment before jogging into the house. She quickly changed into some dry clothes and grabbed a blanket, her cellphone, and a spare, rarely used toolbox off her porch and jumped into her car. The light sprinkle of rain had quickly turned into a torrent, soaking the ground and turning the soft dirt into a sticky, squishy mess that seeped and clung to everything and occasionally sending her truck skidding across the road. Luckily, she made it to the barn without incident.

As Alyssa walked into the dilapidated building, she looked around for the robot. He wasn't in the barn, but she could hear him outside struggling to make his way up the sandy ridge before the barn. Alyssa quickly walked over to the bigger barn doors and threw her weight onto the heavy wood planks. They slowly opened, and the robot hobbled over to them as fast as his leg was allowing him, looking eager to get out of the rain. He had just made it inside the barn before his bad leg gave out, sending him sprawling to the hay-covered floor with a loud THUD.

Letting the doors slam shut, Alyssa ran over to him. Pain and exhaustion were etched across his faceplates, and Alyssa marveled at how much expression could be expressed through the metal sheets.

"Somethin' wrong?" he asked, jolting Alyssa from her thoughts.

She blushed, realizing that she had been staring. "No! Sorry, I was just thinking." An awkward silence settled between the two. "So... Do you have a name?"

He chuckled a little. "Yeah. My name's Jazz. How 'bout you?"

She looked up at Jazz and smiled. "My name is Alyssa St. James. It's nice to officially meet you."

"Same," he replied. He shifted around, trying to ease the pain in his leg. Suddenly, sparks started shooting out of the broken wires and cables, and Jazz let out a shout. He held the wound, trying to contain the sparks from flying out and hurting Alyssa, or catching something on fire.

"Hey, are you alright? What's wrong?" Alyssa started to run over, but Jazz held out his free hand, stopping her.

"NO. Please, ya need to stay back," he said weakly. Seeing his increasingly weakening state, Alyssa was starting to panic. She couldn't even change a tire, much less fix an alien robot! She ran over to him and tried to assess the damage done, and attempted to help him based on how she would treat a human. "Just try to keep your leg still and breathe,"Alyssa told Jazz as he vented quickly, trying to cool his overheating systems from the wave of pain that overtook him and scrambled his systems. She could feel herself becoming mentally detached from the situation, quickly shifting from civilian to nurse. A growing puddle of glowing blue liquid was seeping onto the floor and coating his leg. Wanting to help but not in the mood to find out if this mystery fluid was safe for a human to touch, Alyssa carefully crawled up and around his leg with a clamp and a wrench.

"It shouldn' hurt you."

Jazz's voice jolted Alyssa from her thoughts. "Hmm? What won't hurt me?"

"The energon. It should just act like motor oil on your skin, if that's what you're worried about," he told her.

She nodded to him. "Thanks. Try not to squish me please."

He grinned wearily at her. "I wouldn' dream of it."

Making her way to the affected area, Alyssa saw torn cables and wires, as well as what looked like a broken fluid line, almost exactly where the femoral artery would be in a human. Taking the clamp, she used all her strength to bend the line upward and twist it shut, trying to clamp it like she would a broken vein. When Alyssa did this to the other end of the line, her heart twisted in her chest as she saw Jazz wince in pain, and she could see him making a serious effort not to move his leg so he wouldn't cause her any harm.

She apologized profusely and tried to work as fast as she could to stop the now shrinking leak. Satisfied that she had stopped any immediate, life-threatening injuries, Alyssa slowly slid down his leg, successfully avoiding any sparking wires she was too scared to touch and landed safely on the floor. Knowing that the clamp was only a temporary fix Alyssa looked around the barn for something that could possibly act as a more permanent solution. Not seeing anything, Alyssa was starting to panic a little bit. Jazz was rapidly getting worse and she didn't know what else to do. He was venting in and out heavily, and the his armor was starting to slowly heat up, probably due to the stress his systems were under. On top of his deteriorating condition, Alyssa was nearly falling over with exhaustion and the warm metal was making her sleepy. He seemed even worse than when he had arrived, and Alyssa could only hope that she had done the right thing. The energy looked like it had stopped seeping out of him and she began rubbing small circles on the warm, gray metal of his hand as she curled up on his open palm. It was a method she used to help herself calm down, the heat of the friction and the repetitive motion was usually just enough to take the edge of the anxiety and panic off. The young woman was trying her best to comfort him by using the same method, though it didn't seem to be working. His blue eyes were glowing dimly, and he seemed exhausted; looking almost as tired as she felt. Looking down at the weary woman, he gently shook her awake. "Are ya... going ta be alright here?"

Nodding, Alyssa set the blanket down next to him. "I'll be fine. We'll see how you are in the morning. Jazz?" But he had already fallen into stasis. She knew he was still alive by the steady thrum of what she could only assume was his heart, and she prayed that it would still be beating in the morning. So Alyssa picked up her blanket once more, and crawled back up in the palm of his hand, which was curled up by his chest. "Just stay alive until tomorrow, Ok? Please?" As Alyssa said that, Jazz's fingers twitched closer, almost protectively around her as she fell into a dark, dreamless sleep once more.

 **Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone! Thanks to everyone who followed and left a review for this story! I realized after I posted the first chapter that I didn't really tell you lovely readers when I would be posting new chapters. I actually recently found out that my family is moving across the country, (guess I picked a bad time to upload this fic, huh?) and I have no idea when I will be able to upload chapters. However, I will not abandon this fic, and I will update this story whenever I can. I am still looking for a beta reader, if anyone is interested! As always, thank you for reading! Enjoy!**

Alyssa woke up the next morning in a panic. Initially, it was because she didn't quite remember how she wound up sleeping in a dusty barn. But then, flashes of the previous night's events raced across her mind and she quickly sat up, wincing at the nasty crick in her neck. She vaulted out of the nest she had made and wrapped her quilt around her shoulders like a cape as she scrambled to check the wound on Jazz's leg.

When she made her way up there, Alyssa was astounded. The once gaping and sparking wound had begun to heal itself, delicate fibers and cables beginning to knit themselves back together underneath a thin layer of mesh. It reminded her of how skin and muscle would sew itself together under a scab. Now thoroughly interested, the young nurse began to poke, testing the intricate fibers strength and tenacity under the pressure of a small screwdriver. Completely captivated, she failed to notice blue optics flash to life and a giant hand swing at her. She felt the pressure first, then the sickening feeling of weightlessness as she flew through the air, and finally pain as her head cracked against the floor so hard, stars flashed across her vision. Alyssa groaned as a wave of intense pressure weighed down her sinus cavity. She slowly rolled onto her side and touched the left side of her forehead where it was hit by the giant extremity. Tenderly touching the swollen area, Alyssa could feel the blood seeping from the wound. Her vision quickly began to go fuzzy, and the last thing she saw was Jazz's horrified expression before she blacked out.

His body reacted before he could even register what was happening. When he felt the sharp pain of something poking at his wound, Jazz reacted out of pure instinct, swinging his arm to try to get rid of the one causing his distress. Only as his servo connected with a small, warm body did he remember the blur of events the previous night. Swinging his head around, Jazz briefly saw the woman's head lift up before falling back to the ground with a soft _thump,_ red beginning to stain her dark hair _._ Jazz felt terror and shame burn through his spark. This wasn't supposed to happen! How could he have done that? He stared at the human laying on the floor in front of him, with blood beginning to pool around her like a dark halo and her blanket in a heap by his hand. Desperate to help the woman-Alyssa-he picked up her blanket and draped it over her prone form. Jazz then ever so carefully picked up her limp body and wrapped her in the worn fabric before holding her in his hands. Her fragile body and tiny heartbeat reminded him of a baby bird. Jazz then swore to himself that he would make it up to her in any way possible. Hell, he already owed her his life, what's one more favor? He noticed that her bleeding was becoming slower, and her breaths becoming deeper, more even. Holding her close to his spark, Jazz kept his hands around Alyssa and waited with anxiety for her to wake up. The minutes passed like hours, and Jazz knew he would never forgive himself if he killed her, accident or not. What would Optimus think, knowing that his Second in Command killed an innocent his first day on this small little planet? After an agonizing eternity, she began to stir and Jazz waited with bated breath as her dark eyes flickered open.

Goddamn her head hurt! Groaning, Alyssa slowly opened her eyes and the blue light coming from Jazz's eyes met hers. She slowly sat up and gently held the back of her head, waiting for the waves of pain and dizziness to pass. Alyssa smirked up at him. "So, I assume you're feeling better?"

Jazz looked guiltily down at her. "Primus, ah'm sorry! Ah didn' mean to hurt you."

Alyssa just looked up at him and smiled. Realizing she wasn't on the floor and wrapped in the warmth of her quilt, Alyssa looked up at Jazz. "Did you do this?"

He nodded. "I wanted to make sure ya were comfortable when ya woke up," Jazz explained. "I'm so sorry that happened. Ah should've had more control of myself."

She began to slowly unwrap herself from the blanket and stood up, brushing herself off. "It's alright, honestly!" Jazz gave her a disbelieving look as Alyssa gave him a huff of exasperation. "Look. I know you didn't do it on purpose. I was poking around an exposed wound and what you did was simply a reaction to alleviate the discomfort I was previously inflicting. I should have either warned you or waited for you to wake up in order to examine the wound. If anyone is apologising it should be me."

Jazz gave her a small smile. "Ah'm sorry too. I need to remember how fragile you squishies are."

"Um, thanks, I guess." Silence settled between the two. Alyssa shuffled around awkwardly as Jazz watched her with concern, blood still trickling down the side of her face.

He then moved to set her on the ground, and started to try to stand. "Look, I appreciate all your help an' all, but ya should just go home and forget you ever saw me."

Alyssa looked up at him, shocked. "What? Why? Did I do something wrong?" She questioned. The blanket in her lap was beginning to become wrinkled as her fingers knotted and un-knotted the corners as she figited anxiously.

Jazz waved his hands as a shocked look flickered across his face. "No, it's not you at all! Ah just don' want you to get hurt again 'cus of me." He was looking at the ground, appearing almost like a scolded child.

Alyssa almost would have found it funny if she wasn't so furious at what he was saying. "Excuse me? I am NOT going to leave just because you're worried, and I'm an absent-minded klutz," she scolded. "Now, where do you need to get to? I'm almost positive you didn't land in Wyoming just to go sight seeing."

Jazz was astounded by her boldness. "Well, the rest of my team is meeting up in Tranquility, Nevada-"

Alyssa clapped her hands together. "Fantastic. Let's get going then!"

"Wha'? Wait, ya should probably think this through a little bit-"

But Alyssa was already gathering her things and walking out the barn doors, still talking to herself. Figuring that he should follow her before she ran into a door, Jazz hefted himself to his feet, taking special care to take it easy on his injured leg. Hearing Alyssa call his name snapped him back to the present.

"Hey, could we stop by my house for a minute? I just need to grab a few supplies for the drive," she asked.

"Yeah, sure."Jazz nodded, and he limped toward the barn doors. _Primus,_ he thought. _What have I just gotten myself into?_

"Take only what ya need. If you're serious about comin' along, we hav'ta go ASAP."

"Understood." Alyssa acknowledged as she hopped up onto his waiting hand. and held tight as he lifted her to her bedroom window. She quickly opened the window and tumbled onto her dresser, before falling onto her floor, landing on a book in the process. "Holy jalapeño, that hurt," Alyssa grumbled as she clutched her stinging shoulder.

Jazz peeked through the window. "Everythin' ok in there?"

"Yep, just peachy," She shouted as she dug through her closet, pulling out her brother's old army duffle bag. In it, she threw extra clothes, underwear, socks, a spare pair of shoes, toiletries, her laptop, and a few precious books. Once she was done, Alyssa tossed it onto the roof while she took a quick shower, taking time to clean out the wound on her head, and changed into sturdier clothes; jeans, a black short sleeve t-shirt, and a heavy-duty canvas jacket, with her trusty converse sneakers.

She could tell Jazz was starting to get antsy, since he kept tapping on her window asking if she was ready to go. As she grabbed her purse, Alyssa looked around her room one last time before walking onto her roof once more and jumping onto Jazz's waiting hand, duffle bag in tow.

Once she was on the ground, Alyssa looked up at her new friend. "So what now?"

"We run. The rest of ma team is on their way to Nevada, so that's where we need to go," Jazz explained. Kneeling down to her level, Jazz looked at Alyssa intently, his visor shielding his eyes. "Are ya sure ya want to do this? You've done so much for me already, I hate ta drag ya further into this mess."

Alyssa reached out and touched his face, hands shaking slightly. "I told you that I would help you get to where you need to go, no matter the risks. And I don't back out on my promises."

Jazz nodded, seemingly satisfied with her answer. "Ya should stand back for this." With that, Alyssa watched in fascination as Jazz began to slowly come apart, clicking and twisting as he became an exact replica of her small truck, only silver.

"Holy shit," Alyssa breathed, walking toward the car. Her fingers skimmed over the hood of the familiar truck.

"Like what ya see?" Jazz's voice came through the speakers.

"Yeah! That was amazing!" She picked up her bag and hefted it over her shoulder. "Should I just put this in the back seat?" Alyssa asked

Jazz chuckled in amusement at how polite she was being. She was so different from the woman who shouted at him only hours before. "Go for it." So the young woman threw her bag in the back and proceeded to sit in the passenger seat.

"You can sit in the driver's seat, ya know. I won't be mad."

"I'm alright. It feels weird if I'm in the seat and you're the one driving," Alyssa told him.

The engine began to roar to life, and Jazz turned the radio on. "Ready ta go?"

"Sure-"

"WAIT!" A loud shout interrupted her reply.

She looked out the window and saw Jonathan running toward them, Oliver in tow. "Jonathan? What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" he repeated. "What's wrong is that a meteor flew right over your house, landed in your backyard, you disappeared for the last day and a half and wouldn't answer your phone, and now you're running off looking like you've got enough supplies to survive a zombie apocalypse! What is going on?" Jonathan asked worriedly. "And when did you repaint your truck?"

Alyssa sighed and got out, walking toward the slender man. "Jonathan, I can't explain everything right now, but I need you to trust me. I am fine, and I will be fine. A friend of mine is having some health problems, and I volunteered to go help them for a while. That's all, ok?"

Jonathan still didn't look convinced, but accepted her explanation. "Fine. Just take care of yourself, ok? I'll watch your house while you're gone. And Alyssa," Jonathan trailed off.

"Yes?"

His face was flushed and he shuffled his feet and before the young nurse knew what hit her, the blonde teacher yanked her toward him, leaned forward and kissed her. On the mouth. It was a little bit awkward and one-sided, and Alyssa stood shocked, not knowing how to react as he pulled away. She took a step back and got back into the truck, this time on the drivers side. "Um I-I'll talk to you later, Jon. Take care of Oliver!" Alyssa shouted as Jazz peeled out of her driveway, leaving Jonathan and Oliver standing in her driveway as the sun set over the horizon.

Finally out of view, Alyssa moved over to the passenger side and held her head as she started to rub small circles on her temples. "Oh, geez. What have I done? Why did he do that? What was he thinking?!"

Jazz's voice startled her out of her thoughts. "So what was that? Are you two an item, or somethin'?"

"Let's go with 'or something'," Alyssa replied, voice muffled by her hands. She let her arms fall away from her face and let her head fall back onto the headrest as she looked out the window. The fields were quickly being replaced by highway, and although Alyssa knew they were traveling faster than they should, she didn't really care. The silence continued as the sun set, blue sky being replaced by a blanket of stars and the fluorescent glow of the highway street lights. "Jazz?"

"What's up?"

"Have you ever felt conflicted about something? Like really conflicted?"

Jazz was silent for a moment. "Yeah. I've had plenty of fights with myself over decisions and actions I've taken."

"I just don't know what to do. I care for Jonathan, I really do! I just don't-"

"You don't love him, do you? You might care for him, but what you feel ain't love."

Alyssa sighed in defeat as a small tear dripped down her cheek. "No, I don't. Honestly, he's half the reason I decided to leave with you. I figured if I gave him and myself some space, he would back off a little bit." More tears started to escape her eyes, but her voice never wavered. "I don't want to hurt him. I don't want to hurt anyone, but especially not him."

The silence once again returned, but this time, Jazz was the one to break it. "I understand how ya feel. There was a femme, a female in your terms, that I had known since I was a sparkling. When war broke out on Cybertron, she joined the reigning faction that I was fundamentally opposed to. I became torn between the femme I had known forever, and the blatant evil that was being committed by her faction. In the end I decided not ta compromise my moral coding, and we went our separate ways. She was killed a month later, in the battle for Tyger Pax, where a relic called the Allspark was about to be launched into space."

Alyssa was starting to completely fall apart now, the skin of her face blotchy from crying. "God Jazz, I'm s-so sorry. That must've been awful."

The car beneath her rumbled softly. "It was. I found her frame after the battle was over with. She was covered in burns and bullet holes, but I knew it was her. I felt so much guilt for leavin' her, I could've fallen apart." He paused for a moment. "But I knew on my spark that I had made the right choice in joining tha Autobots." Jazz finished.

"Who are they? The Autobots, I mean," Alyssa asked.

Jazz waited for a moment before answering. "Well, tha's a long story. The best way is to start at the beginning. Before the war, there was the Allspark-"

Although Alyssa was still listening, Jazz's soft voice and her long hours of crying were starting to lull her to sleep, and she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. Knowing she was fighting a losing battle, Alyssa tapped the dashboard with her shoe, which had come off at some point during their conversation. "Jazz, wake me up-" she let out a jaw-cracking yawn. "Wake me up if you want to take a break for a while."

She could practically see his smirk as he replied, "Sure thing. Sleep well."

Alyssa mumbled something along the lines of 'Please don't run into a light post,' before she was out cold.

Jazz didn't know why he told her about Cloudbreaker. No one knew about her, not even Optimus. Prowl knew, but that's because he's a nosey fragger and can't help himself from digging up any information he possibly can. He made a mental note to tell his sleeping passenger to keep that tidbit of information to herself. As the duo continued west, Jazz's internal alarms started to go off, telling him that he needed to recharge, or risk slipping into stasis. So he pulled off the highway and stopped at a gas station so Alyssa would be able to take care of what she needed to so they could get back on the road. It was still dark, but the clock said 4am, so it wasn't an unreasonable time. Needing his sleeping passenger to wake up quickly, Jazz shook slightly in hopes the irregular movements would rouse her. When that failed, he turned on the radio on to see if that would wake her up. No such luck. She just grumbled a muffled 'Fuck off,' before turning over on the reclined seat. 'Ok', Jazz thought. 'Since tha' easy way didn't work, I'll try my way.' So he muted the radio before he cranked the volume to it's highest setting and switched it to a death metal station.

Then he un-muted the radio.

Alyssa screamed as she shot out of the cabin as fast as she could, running into a parked car in her fear-fueled attempt to get away. Regaining her ability to think straight, Alyssa sheepishly apologized to the car's occupant, then walked over to where Jazz was at. The entire frame of the car was shaking and she could hear his stifled laughter from inside. She yanked the door open and got inside as she slammed it shut. "What in the seven hells was that? I asked you to wake me up, not give me a fucking heart attack!"

Jazz started to laugh even harder now. "Ya-ya should've see your face! Ha ha! That was awesome!" He now started to try to compose himself a little, since he figured he owed her an explination."Ya weren't waking up. I can honestly say that I tried the nice way to wake ya, but I mighta gone overboard." Jazz paused, waiting for the silent woman to say something. "If it helps, I recorded it," he told her as an afterthought.

A massive grin broke out on the young womans face. "Good. I really want to see it. I might even send it to Jonathan!" At his name, a dark shadow crossed over her face. "Maybe I won't send it. Hey Jazz?" Alyssa asked. "I'm gonna run in the gas station for a few minutes. Do you mind waiting?"

"Not at all. I'll see ya in a few." Grabbing her purse off the floor, Alyssa walked into the grimy building. Once she was inside, Jazz pealed out of the parking lot, on the hunt for a different alt mode. After a few minutes of driving, Jazz found a Pontiac dealership and spotted his new look. "Perfect." Jazz said. He found just the right angle where he could scan the car and not be seen by oncoming traffic, and began the transformation. Armor shifted, expanded, thickened, and a brand-new Pontiac Solstice was driving off moments later.

Alyssa wandered around the gas station, not knowing what to get. The toilet had thankfully been freshly cleaned, and the young woman twisted her hair into a messy bun after she had used the bathroom. Now she was here, with the bleary cashier staring at her rumpled clothes and messy hair, waiting for her to get whatever it was she wanted so he could go back to sleeping on the counter. Deciding to take pity on the poor kid, Alyssa grabbed a box of pop-tarts and a coffee from the freezer and walked up to the counter. She quickly paid for her items and walked outside, looking around for Jazz. He was nowhere. Just a sleek little sports car and the car she ran into, but no Jazz. The sports car flashed its lights at her, and Alyssa walked over warily, not in the mood to be kidnapped or raped.

"Ya like tha new look?" Jazz's voice nearly made her drop the bag she was holding. The drivers side door opened and she could see the sleek interior, all black leather and shiny chrome. Even she could see he was practically begging for a compliment on his appearance.

"I do. But you're smaller. Doesn't that break, like, all the rules of physics?" The young woman asked as she climbed into the driver's seat, knowing it was her turn to drive.

"Not really. The other form was too large for my frame, so my armor compensated for it. If I had gotten in a wreck or a fight, my armor woulda ripped like a tin can under a freight train. Now if somethin' happens, I won't look like I was tossed through a paper shredder."

"Sounds reasonable. Are you ready to get back on the road?" Alyssa asked as she got into the passenger's seat.

"Let's get going!" Jazz exclaimed as he revved his engine and peeled out of the gas station, with Alyssa squealing in excitement as they drove off down the empty stretch of highway. After a few more hours of driving, they saw the sign they were looking for.

"Tranquility, Nevada."


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone! I am so sorry for the long wait! Getting a house prepared to be sold was a lot more work than anyone thought it would be, so the stress level with my family is pretty high right now. So I know that this chapter isn't as long as the others, and I can promise that the next chapter will be much longer and will come out much faster than this one! Also, a big thank you to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed this story. It means more than you know! Now that that's out of the way, enjoy the chapter, and don't forget to review! Thanks again everyone for putting up with me!**

Alyssa sat in the back of an SUV, thrown in with the two teens. They had grown quiet a while ago, after they figured out that no one was going to listen to their pleas and threats. While Alyssa had thought about trying to quiet their yells of anger, she decided not to. Might as well give the bastards a headache for all the suffering they've caused. As she leaned against the blacked out window, Alyssa cried silently and wondered how things had gone so wrong so fast.

"There it is, that's the exit! Jazz, turn for God's sake! Wait wait wait wait, don't cut the guy-" Alyssa waved sadly at the truck driver, who was mouthing curse words and flipping them the bird. "Off. Don't cut the guy off. Do you know how dangerous that is? You could have gotten all three of us killed!" the frazzled woman exclaimed.

"I had ma blinker on for five miles! He should'a moved ta let me through!"

Alyssa pinched the bridge of her nose out of sheer frustration and exhaustion. "I realize that, but there is also something called patience. There was an opening just two cars behind him where you could have moved to that lane without nearly killing us all," she explained.

The car was silent for a moment before Jazz spoke once more. "Ya know, you sound alot like Prime."

"Who is he? You've told me about the others, but not him. Is he like, your mentor or something?"

"Sorta. He's tha leader of the Autobots, and a supreme leader chosen by Primus. He's often told me tha same thing." And Jazz was silent again.

"How long has it been since you've last seen them?"

The silence continued, and Alyssa was almost sure that he wasn't going to answer. "It's been almost two hundred years."

Alyssa gasped at the revelation. "Are you kidding me? How old are you guys?"

"Well, ah'd guess at least a thousand years, your time. Give or take a few hundred years. But I'm one of the younger ones. Prime is at least twice my age."

"Wow..." Alyssa was speechless. There really was nothing she could think of to say. And so the silence continued. "You must think we look so insignificant. All of you live so long, our lives must seem like a blink of an eye. Or optic, I guess." she said quietly.

The silence continued, reaching almost five minutes, until Jazz abruptly spoke. "Ah think ya look like giants."

"Coming from the giant robot. And isn't that quote from Doctor Who?"

Jazz laughed. "Well, ya caught me. But it does apply. The way humans live make their lives seem so much longer than their amount of years would suggest. We live for so long, our lives tend ta mean nothin', and the bad begins ta outweigh tha good."

Alyssa touched the steering wheel softly, as if to offer any kind of comfort she could. "I guess that makes sense." The conversation paused once again and Alyssa looked out the window. "We should hurry, it's starting to get dark out."

"Yeah, let's go."

With that, they sped off into the dying light.

By the time they made it to the back alley, the last moments of sunset were being erased by the inky black of night. Upon seeing the bright lights of the search and rescue vehicle, giant pick-up, and the massive semi-truck, Alyssa knew they were in the right place. The duo filed behind the other three, and made their way to the back of the alley where there was plenty of space for them to transform. From the way Jazz was revving his engine, the young nurse could tell Jazz was anxious to meet with comrades. But he wasn't the only one feeling anxious about the meeting. And as the other aliens pulled into the alley, Jazz hung back.

He could tell something was wrong with his small passenger. Her heart rate had increased, her cheeks were flushed, and her hands were shaking. He wanted her to be open with him, and clearly that wasn't going to happen without a little bit of prodding. "What's wrong, Ace?"

Alyssa's head shot up at the sudden intrusion of her looping thoughts. "Hmm? Sorry, what was that, Jazz?

"I said, what's wrong? You jus' aren't yourself right now," Jazz said softly.

"I'm fine, Jazz. Now let's go, aren't you ready to go see your friends?"

"Yeah, but right now, you're a priority. They've waited a couple hundred years, they can wait a few more minutes. Now wha's wrong?"

Alyssa let a shaky sigh escape her. "I-I just... I know I willingly came with you, and that I was prepared for all of this, but... I'm scared. I'm scared for you, that your friends won't be who they were, and that you could get in trouble for bringing me with you. I'm scared that they won't like me, that they're gonna think I'm a hinderance," she confessed. Her whole body was shaking now, and a few rebellious tears slipped down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey there. Don't cry, It'll all be fine. I will be fine, you'll be fine, and they will love ya, Ace. Now dry those eyes, an' stop leaking. I'm ready ta introduce ya to my brothers."

The young woman gave him a wavering laugh. "Alright. Take me to your leader!" Jazz laughed at that and he started to drive once more. "Hey Jazz? What's up with you calling me Ace?" Alyssa asked.

"Well, every sidekick needs a nickname." Jazz replied, and Alyssa could practically see the shit-eating grin.

When the two finally caught up with the rest, Alyssa was able to get a good look at the rest of the Autobots. While she was gawking, the robot she was currently sitting in gave her a slight cough. "Not ta interrupt anything, but I really need ta stretch ma legs." Jazz said as he politely opened the door for the woman to get out.

"Oops, sorry," she said as she exited Jazz's vehicle mode just moments before he was doing a fancy back-flip out of his transformation with a wink in her direction. Alyssa just rolled her eyes and stepped off to the side, the shadows nearly engulfing her pale figure.

The tallest one, who she assumed was the leader, knelt down to the teenagers, specifically the boy. "Are you Samuel James Witwicky, descendant of Archibald Witwicky?"

Alyssa had to hold back a laugh at his dumbfounded look, and his girlfriend's complete disbelief. "They know your name!" She whispered.

"Yeah..." he answered with wide eyes.

"My name is Optimus Prime. We are Autonomous Robotic Organisms from the planet Cybertron."

The yellow (bright green?) one interjected. "But you can call us Autobots for short."

"Autobots..." The kid, Sam, repeated back, still staring at the Prime.

While Optimus introduced Jazz, Alyssa facepalmed when Jazz looked at the kids and said 'What's cracking little bitches?" before crushing the hood of a junker car right behind him. ' _So much for trying to teach him to be polite,'_ Alyssa thought.

"-And this is mah sidekick, Ace," Jazz interjected.

Taking this as her cue to step out of the darkness, the young woman walked into the lights that nearly flooded the alley. "Actually, it's Alyssa, but Ace works just fine. But," Alyssa said, shooting Jazz a look, "I am NOT the sidekick here."

Seeing a human that wasn't intended to be here, Optimus glared at his Lieutenant. "Jazz-"

"Prime, I can explain. It was an accident, an one thing afta anotha happened, and whatever punishment you see fit to dole out, ah will accept without complaint. But don' involve her with mah slip up." While addressing the Prime, Jazz had moved slightly in front of the woman, almost as if to physically shield her from his leader's words.

"Be at ease, Jazz. There will be no further repercussions. I trust your judgement, old friend. And you, young one," Optimus turned his attention to the shaking nurse, who was fully prepared to flee with the two kids should a brawl break out between the two 'bots. "You will be safe with us. Jazz will make sure no harm will come to you." The Prime then turned his attention back to the two teenagers and continued the introductions. There was Bumblebee the scout and guardian, Ironhide the weapons specialist who nearly caused Sam to crap his pants, and Ratchet the medic, who gave an awkward first impression by blowing Sam's ulterior motive for hanging out with the girl.

"Why are you here?" She asked

"We are here looking for the Allspark. And we must find it before Megatron." Optimus responded

Sam looked confused. "Mega-what?"

As he said that, the ground beneath them seemed to crack and crumble, falling away into the projected vision. "Our planet was once a powerful empire. Peaceful, and just. Until we were betrayed by Megatron, leader of the Decpticons. All who defied them were destroyed," Optimus explained sadly. "Our war finally consumed the planet, and the Allspark was lost to the stars. Megatron followed it to Earth, where Captian Witwicky found him."

Sam let out a choked sigh as he began to piece together the true story of his ancestor's madness. "My grandfather..."

"It was an accident that intertwined our fates." The three humans stared in shock at the Prime. "Megatron had crash-landed, before he could retrieve the Cube. And Captain Witwicky accidentally activated his navigation systems, which caused a map of the Cube's location to be etched into his glasses"

"How did you know about his glasses?" Sam asked.

"Ebay," Optimus replied simply.

"If the Decpticons find the Allspark, they will use it's power to transform Earth's machines, and build a new army," Ratched continued for the Prime

"And the human race will be extinguished." Optimus finished. "Sam Witwicky, you hold the key to Earth's survival."

The girl next to the panicking Sam looked up at him. "Please tell me you have those glasses."

 **To be continued...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi everyone! I know this is still pretty late (Ok, lets not kid each other, this was REALLY late), so please don't squish me! So this chapter was a little bit more difficult to write, due to time constraints, work, packing for the rapidly approaching move, and moving myself up to school and getting settled in here, on top of just a lack of motivation and inspiration. This whole process has been WAY more exhausting than any of us originally planned. Please follow and review, reviews especially motivate me to move just a little bit faster! :)**

The caravan of robots raced through the streets, the yellow Camaro leading the way. He quickly came to a screeching halt down an alley, presumably behind the house Sam lived in. The teen nearly flew out of the car, and ran to his back door where Alyssa saw a figure that she assumed was his father was waiting. They began to have a heated discussion, and the poor kid was looking more and more anxious by the second. Swallowing her own fears, Alyssa exited Jazz's vehicle mode while trying to come up with an excuse that could save the kid and herself from further interrogation. She had almost made it to the corner before the familiar clicking and whirring of a transformation and a low voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Before ya go save tha kid, I need ta give you something," Jazz said as Alyssa had nearly rounded the corner of the kid's house. She turned around, brown curls bouncing over her shoulders as she looked up to his face, waiting for him to continue. Looking away for a moment, he pulled out a small metal fragment from his chest. It was only the size of an arrowhead, and it had a slight glow to it. Turning back around, Jazz held out the minuscule fragment to the waiting human in front of him. "Go on, take it. It's for you."

Alyssa looked up at him warily, before slowly taking the small shard from his waiting hand. It fit into the palm of her hand, and it was warm, with a pulse almost so faint, Alyssa dismissed it as her imagination. "What is it?" She inquired, her curiosity poking through the flurry of emotions this night had managed to wrestle out of her.

Luckily, Jazz had an answer. "It's a piece of metal, duh. It has my spark signature on it, so it will show up on my scanners as you, and as a duplicate signature on the other's scanners," Jazz noticed the blank expression on Alyssa's face, and he sighed, realizing that he needed to speak a little more plainly. "It basically lets us track you using my energy signature."

"Oh, ok. Why do I need to have this again?"

Jazz rolled his eyes. "'Cause you're a little trouble maker, tha's why."

Alyssa gave him a snarky look as she pocketed the little fragment, making a mental note to secure it to her necklace chain at a later date. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Jazz. Now, I need to go rescue the poor sap who is getting an earful from his parents." With that, Alyssa stepped out of the dark alley and into the floodlights that illuminated the back yard.

When she stepped onto the patio, Sam was stuttering and clearly sucking up to his father, who was in the process of explaining all the chores he had been stuck with, when Alyssa walked up behind the teen and cleared her throat. The short, balding man stopped his tirade and looked up to the younger woman. "And who are you?" he asked, shortly.

Clearly he did not appreciate the interruption.

"Hi, are you Mr. Witwicky? My name is Alyssa ," she lied smoothly, silently apologising to her sister for using her and her husband's last name. "I'm new to the area, and my car broke down just a few miles away. Your son here was coming home, and, well, he offered to give me a ride back to my apartment. I was waiting for him to come back to the car when I noticed that you and your son were talking, and I wanted to clear up any misunderstandings," she explained softly, using her meekest voice and trying to look as lost and innocent as possible.

Mr. Witwicky's face never changed as he paused to look from Alyssa to Sam once again. "Sam, is that true?"

Sam nodded furiously, and Alyssa prayed that his parents would buy the massive lie. Sam's father continued to stare at the two until he finally sighed, seeming to deflate. "Well, it's not very safe for a kid and a young woman to be driving around at night. You can stay with us tonight. JUDY!" he yelled up to his wife. "Set up the couch, we have a visitor!"

A shrill voice responded and Alyssa saw a small head poke around the stairway. "A what? Ron, you need to speak louder, you know I can't hear you upstairs."

"WE HAVE A VISITOR! SHE IS STAYING THE NIGHT! SET UP THE COUCH!" he yelled over to his wife, craning his neck so he was kind of looking at her.

Judy had been walking down the stairs when Ron yelled, and she was nearly by the back door by the time he finished. "God Ron, I said speak louder, not scream at me," Judy responded as she lightly smacked him upside the head. "And who might you be?" she asked, finally noticing Alyssa standing awkwardly next to a very embarrassed Sam.

"Um, Alyssa. My car broke down a few miles away, and Sam here helped me out and was going to take me back to my apartment when your husband offered to let me stay the night," she explained to the slightly-tipsy woman.

"Oh. What apartment complex do you live in?" Judy asked innocently.

Alyssa thought quickly, trying to remember if she had seen any signs or billboards advertising apartments. "Uh, I think it's called Crane Hill apartments. I'm still trying to get my bearings here, and I truly hope I'm not imposing on you," she said quietly, a bit intimidated by the loud, boisterous family.

"Oh, it's not a problem at all, right Ron?" the tanned woman said as she sharply elbowed her distracted husband.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure." Ron replied staring at the staircase Sam had run up.

Awkward silence filled the room, and it was quiet enough to hear the thumping and rustling coming from Sam's room. More silence followed, and it was almost a relief when the ground beneath them started shaking. "Earthquake! Judy, get under the table!"

Having grown up and lived on top of an ever-growing super volcano, Alyssa was well acquainted with small earthquakes, so she calmly walked over to a doorway and stood underneath it, waiting for the trembling to stop. While the minor earthquake occurred, Alyssa looked out the window to see that all their problems inside were being caused by some klutzy robots stumbling around in an empty lot. And when Ratchet ran into a telephone pole attached with a power transformer and knocked out power for the whole street, Alyssa could barely hold it together. It was a relief when Sam's parents ran upstairs to check on him so Alyssa could quietly laugh to herself and not have to worry about strange looks from her hosts. After taking a deep breath to calm herself, she took in her surroundings. Snooping around their kitchen, the young woman quickly rifled through the drawers, looking for anything that could be used as a small, concealed weapon, should she have the need to use one. She found what she was looking for in the second drawer.

A two-inch swiss army knife.

It wasn't the perfect weapon, but it would work. Somehow the power managed to flick back on and Alyssa panicked, shoving the small knife into her jeans pocket as Judy and Ron walked back downstairs.

"Well sorry for asking, Ron! How was I supposed to know he had a girl in his room?" Judy proclaimed loudly, waving her arms and nearly splashing wine all over the walls.

"Because you just don't ask a kid that!"

 _"How did Mikaela end up in his room?"_ Alyssa thought.

So she continued to stand awkwardly in the doorway while the older couple argued loudly. Judy was the first one to realize that Alyssa was still standing in the room. "Oh, I'm so sorry honey! You can sit down you know! Would you like a coffee?" Judy asked, stopping mid argusation with her husband.

"Uh, coffee would be great, thanks," Alyssa replied while a dumbfounded Ron just stood there. Sam suddenly appeared at the bottom of the stairs with a loud _thunk_ and raced into the kitchen.

He looked around frantically for a few moments, before turning to his mother and asking, "Where's my backpack?"

She gave him a strange look before pointing to the counter with a mug in her hand. "Over on the table, where you left it after school," she answered.

While Sam rifled through his bag, Alyssa realized she needed to relieve herself. "Would you mind if I used the bathroom?" Alyssa asked while Judy made her some coffee.

Judy laughed, her alcohol-reddened cheeks flushing an even darker shade of pink as she poured some water into the reservoir. "Of course dear, its just down the hall, first door on your left next to the closet," she directed. Walking down the hallway and finding the door, the brunette closed the door and quickly did her business. Just as she finished washing her hands, Alyssa heard the door open and rough voices making demands before hauling the family out of their own home, even taking the small dog with them. Alyssa was barely able to hold back a snicker of amusement at Judy's threat to the officers if they hurt her dog. Forcing herself to gain her composure, Alyssa took a deep, calming breath and slowly opened the bathroom door.

Poking her head out from around the corner, she saw the agents force Sam and Mikaela into a black SUV, and speed off down the street. Waiting until she couldn't hear the cars outside the house, she peeked her head out further, and scanned the kitchen. So far, so good. Quietly creeping out of her hiding place, she tiptoed toward the back door where a cluster of neighbors had gathered to see the ongoing situation unfold. Quickly slipping out the side door to avoid the wide open back yard, she snuck behind bushes and trees, and had somehow managed to make into and out of the crowd without being picked up by the feds. After making her way through the clusters of whispering locals, she made it to the back alley where she had last seen Jazz, hoping he would still be there.

No such luck.

"Well, fuck." Alyssa sighed, and she fumbled around with the metal fragment Jazz had given her. She began flicking it, speaking to it, waving it around looking for temperature fluctuations, anything to give her a clue on how to contact her missing guardian. "How the hell does this thing work?"

"Not like that."

Alyssa whipped around, and saw Jazz kneeling behind her. The familiar snarky grin was back on his face and Alyssa would have smacked him if she knew it would only result in pain for her. "And where in the seven hells were you? I was looking everywhere!"

Jazz just shrugged. "I was savin' the kid from the suits. Now it's your turn." With that, he had transformed and held open the door for her to get in.

"My hero." Alyssa grumbled sarcastically, climbing in the front seat. The folded knife in her back pocket pressed up against her, and she offered up a silent prayer that she wouldn't need to use it.

They raced down the road, weaving in and out of alleyways in an attempt to find where Prime ran with the kids. Alyssa was clenching her hands to something, anything to keep her from smashing her head through the windshield. A particularly sharp turn cracked her head against the window, causing the skin to split and Alyssa to see stars. "Jazz, please slow down!" She could feel blood trickle down the side of her head, clinging thickly to her messy hair. "Jazz, please!"

There was a long pause before Jazz slowed down marginally. A short response came through the radio, and it caused ice to flash through her veins. "They have Bee." Alyssa's hands flew up to cover her mouth, eyes wide with horror. The thought of the government experimenting on the happy little scout made her gut churn.

"We better hurry and save him than," Alyssa replied, mentally kicking herself for not seeing Jazz's urgency.

As Jazz sped up once again, his voice cut through her self-deprecating thoughts, and effectively silencing them. "It's fine ya know. You wouldn'ta known about Bee." Neither of them spoke for a long while, until an electronic wail cut through the air. Finding a safe place to park on the bridge, Jazz pulled over and hid behind a support pillar, while still allowing him to see what was happening to their youngest member.

Alyssa's heart thudded to a sickening halt in her chest as another wail came from the yellow scout. She began to struggle to get out of the seat belt, but Jazz held her tightly in place. "Let me out! We need to help him!" She cried. The wails were growing softer and becoming less frequent, and Alyssa was getting desperate. Pulling out the knife from her back pocket, she sawed through the seat belt holding her in place. She jumped out of her seat, through the open window, and ran toward the drainage pipes. Jazz raced forward and tried to hold her back, fishtailing and skidding to a halt in front of her, blocking her path. She didn't even stop, flopping over the hood of the car and scrambling down the concrete embankment.

As the young woman reached Bumblebee, she grabbed a hose from one of the officers and began to wrestle it out of his grasp, briefly noticing Sam trying to do the same thing. Rough hands suddenly wrapped around her waist and yanked her away from the man she was fighting. As Alyssa was tossed to the ground, her teeth pierced her lip and blood began to trickle from her mouth, mingling with the dirty water soaking into her jacket as she was pinned down and handcuffed. At that point, Bee had stopped moving and Alyssa felt tears prick at the back of her eyes as she feared the worst had happened to the lively scout. She felt all the fight drain out of her, and she let herself be dragged to the waiting SUV. As Alyssa was stopped in front of Agent Simmons, she spat a glob of bloody spit at his feet, and hate burned so brightly through her eyes, that the agent actually took a step back. He gestured for her to be put with Sam and his girlfriend in the SUV, and only when the door closed behind her did she let the tears fall.

Optimus watched silently as Alyssa and the others were taken away, SUV's melting into the inky black of the night. Jazz approached the Prime, who was still under the bridge. "Optimus," he said, "Are we just gonna stand here and do nothing?"

Optimus sighed, his tone defeated. "There's no way to free Bumblebee without harming the humans," he explained.

"But it's not right! And Alyssa-"

"Let them leave." There was no room for argument in the Prime's voice. As Optimus knelt down to grab the glasses that had fallen out of the boy's pocket, Jazz climbed back up to the road above the bridge.

"What did Optimus say?" asked a concerned Ironhide. Jazz felt a rush of agony go through him. Ironhide had pretty much raised the small scout since he was a sparkling, and it killed him to be the one to tell the weapons specialist the heartbreaking news.

Jazz paused before delivering the news. "Optimus says we wait." And with that, Jazz drove off in the direction they took their friends.

 **Again, I am so sorry to all of you for making you wait this long! Thank you so much for all of you that reviewed to the last few chapters, it really means a lot! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you stick with me for the rest of this story!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi everyone! Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! This chapter is far overdue, and I can only apologize to all of you who have read this and continued to support this story, even though I was gone for months. I want to thank all of you who have left reviews, favorited, and followed this story! It really means a lot. For all your waiting, here is a nice, extra long chapter that I worked hard on to make sure was up to par. Take care everyone, and God bless!**

The sound of a jet engine jolted Alyssa awake. Snapping her head up, she instantly regretted the action as the krick in her neck sent a jolt of pain through her shoulders and spine. Gingerly turning her head, Alyssa realized that both teens had fallen asleep on her shoulders. She smiled to herself, happy that at least two of them were able to get some restful sleep. Her dreams had been anything but pleasant. They were filled with blood, twisted metal, and flashes of a blinding yet fading blue light. Moving to stretch her arms, she realized that her hands were still cuffed together.

Damn cop wannabes.

All of a sudden, the SUV came to an abrupt stop, jerking all three of its passengers and waking the younger two up in the process. Sam and Mikaela were silent as they were dragged out of the back seat, and so was Alyssa as a man in a suit and dark sunglasses grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her out of the car as well. The sun was just starting to rise on the horizon, and it was just bright enough to see that the three captives were on an airfield somewhere in the desert. While being yanked out of the SUV, Alyssa tripped and sprawled face-first onto the dusty concrete with an _oomph._ "Get up!" barked the agent that was currently manhandling her. Hearing the commotion behind them, Sam and Mikaela turned around to see what was happening. Seeing the man yanking her up sharply, Mikaela tried to turn and help the older woman, but was also yanked around and pushed forward.

Alyssa couldn't help but grin a little while she was being dragged to her feet when the teen started to cuss and squirm in the grip of the agent holding her. As she was pushed forward with the teens, the nurse gave a worried Mikaela a small smile before her head was jerked forward, preventing her from looking anywhere but forward. No one said a word as the three were lined up and held in place by agents as a massive military helicopter landed only a few feet away from them, the force of the blades whipping up dirt and small rocks and flinging the into their faces, making Alyssa's eyes water and burn. Then, in an unexpected twist, their handcuffs were removed and they were ushered into the helicopter, where they were given protective headphones with a small microphone attached. They were barely strapped in before the aircraft lurched off the ground and they were airborne. Taking a moment to observe her cramped surroundings, Alyssa noticed two more people in civilian clothes sitting across from them, a slight blonde woman in stylish clothes and an overweight African American man who looked about ready to vomit everywhere. Still, no one said anything for nearly twenty minutes, until the blonde woman addressed Sam. "So, what are you here for?" She asked with a delicate Australian accent.

"I bought a car. He turned out to be an alien robot," he answered as a pained smile worked it's way onto his face. "Who knew?"

The sound of a faltering engine was the first thing to catch Ratchet's attention. The second was the splotches of energon being left behind on the road behind Jazz. That was when Ratchet demanded they pull over somewhere to check on the status of the second in command. Finding an abandoned space observatory, Optimus figured that that was the best spot to analyze the glasses. So while Prime and Ironhide left to check out the building, Ratchet took Jazz to a cliff ledge where he could examine the saboteur without them being in the middle of the road. The third and most alarming thing was the second spark signature that should not exist when Ratchet scanned the saboteur. "Jazz, is there any particular reason your spark signature is showing up TWICE in my scans?" Ratchet inquired.

Moving over slightly to avoid the inevitable verbal maelstrom that was sure to erupt, Jazz tried to brace himself for the impact. "Well, ah might've given Ace a piece of my spark-"

"You did WHAT?!" Ratchet screeched, and Jazz had to physically stop himself from flinching. "You pit-spawned, son of a glitch! Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"Can it, Ratch. I know what I'm doin'."

"Like pit you do!" Ratchet exploded. "Do you have any idea what could happen if the humans find that? If she gave it to her government to study? I'm not even bringing up what horrific problems that could happen to the human body with the amount of radiation our sparks give off! On top of all of that, your spark is now unstable!" Jazz winced, the problems mentioned by Ratchet regarding the humans not having even crossed his mind.

"Sorry doc, I was just tryin' to keep her safe, keep all of 'em safe." He mumbled quietly. "Guess ah jus' wasn't thinkin' straight."

Ratchet just sighed as he scanned the wound, trying to see what systems had been affected. "Your processor has been addled ever since we landed here." He grumbled, irritation and concern melding together for the silver bot.

As the medic worked on the fidgety Autobot's leg, he could feel Jazz sigh in relief and frustration. "Ratchet, I know mah limits. The piece I gave Ace is jus' big enough ta give an energy signature. Tha's all," Jazz explained, trying to placate the green medic. "And now we even know where ta look for tha kids! Hell, they might even have Bee an' the Allspark with 'em!" he chattered optimistically.

Ratchet said nothing, he just grunted and continued patching up Jazz's leg, soldering wires and tubing as best as he could without proper tools and supplies. As he finished soldering mesh around the protoform, he looked up at the face of the mech he was working on. "Jazz-"

"I know, Ratch," Jazz cut him off, irritated and not really wanting to sit through a lecture.

"No, you don't Jazz." Ratchet said as the silver mech stood up to join Ironhide and Optimus on the observatory. "That injury on your leg is deep, and I don't know what you did to your self-repair systems, but they aren't working properly. I've done what I can, but Jazz," Ratchet paused, unsure of how to tell him. "It will kill you if you can't get that system online soon; and wherever the problem is, I can't fix it here. That means the wound will continue to leak and patching it will only do so much before you do something stupid and tear the whole thing wide open again."

Jazz only nodded, his visor darkening as he stood up. "I understand. But Ratch, can ya not tell the others? There's enough goin' on without them worrin' about whether I can hold my own in a fight," he asked, almost pleading with him not to tell.

Ratchet sighed, frustrated that he was giving in so easily. "Fine." as Jazz offered him a hand back to his feet. Shaking himself off, the silver mech began to move toward the others by the observatory, but the grouchy medic wasn't done. "And if you are stupid enough to get yourself killed, I will bring you back if only to say 'I told you so'."

His mouth curved up mischievously, Jazz turned around just enough to look at the medic. "Ah wouldn'ta expected anythin' else from ya," he said softly, before vaulting onto the roof of the white building.

Ratchet said nothing else, just rolled his eyes and followed the lieutenant.

In the short moments it took Ratchet to join the rest of the group, Jazz was already perched on the corner of the building, waiting impatiently while the Autobot leader pulled the fragile artifact from his subspace. "Please...let this work." Optimus whispered quietly, almost pleading with the object to reveal it's secrets.

"Fire it up, Optimus." Said the silver minibot, who was beginning to pace on the rooftop.

Turning so everyone would be able to see, Optimus focused a laser through the glasses, creating a hologram of the small blue planet they were on. Sending a silent prayer to whomever was listening, he scanned deeper into the encryption to hopefully pull out the coordinates. "The code...the code on these glasses indicates the Allspark is 230 miles from here."

At that, Jazz perked up. _"Doc, that's where they have Alyssa!"_ He said over their internal comms system.

Ratchet shifted uneasily, hearing Jazz but not able to find anything to say to him. "I sense the Decepticons are getting ready to mobilize." the medic stated with a sinking feeling in his spark.

"They must know it's here as well..." Ironhide commented grimly.

"What about Bumblebee? We can't just leave him to die! Or become some human experiment! And Ace lost her freedom because of me! She was willing to become a criminal to save Bee!" Jazz added, anger seeping into his voice.

"He'll die in vain if we don't accomplish our mission. Bumblebee is a brave soldier; this is what he would want." Optimus reasoned, though he couldn't bring himself to meet Ironhide's optics. Turning to his lieutenant, the Autobot leader tried to ease his comrade's fears. "And we will help Alyssa when the Allspark is secured. We will not abandon either Bumblebee or our human allies, but we must complete our mission first."

The weapons specialist, however, was not so easily talked down. "Why are we fighting to save the humans? They're a primitive and violent race." He asked, his desire to save the young scout he saw as a son clear.

"Were we so different?" their leader rebuked quietly. "They are a young species; they have much to learn... but I've seen goodness in them. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings...you all know there is only one way to end this war. We must destroy the Cube." He paused, pain lacing his systems at the though of destroying their only hope for their race, if only to keep it from one who would bring greater destruction to yet another world. "If all else fails, I will unite it with the spark in my chest." Prime finished, opening his chest plates briefly to expose his spark casing.

Ratchet balked. "That's suicide! The Cube is raw power, it could destroy you both!"

"A necessary sacrifice to bring peace to this planet. We cannot let the humans pay for our mistakes." The leader said gravely. "It's been an honor serving with you all." His optics met with each of his team members, his friends, his _family._ "Autobots, roll out!"

"We roll!" Jazz added, leaping off the roof and sprinting to keep up with the others. Though it didn't escape Ironhide, the way their second in command grimaced in pain as he hit the ground.

Alyssa was still horrified at what she just witnessed. After Agent 'Asshat' Simmons confronted Sam on top of the Hoover Dam, Alyssa, the teens, as well as Maggie and Glenn, the two who were with them in the helicopter, were escorted by Simmons through a series of hallways and elevators in the restricted area of the Dam until they were in the deepest levels of the structure, just barely above the river. The darkness of the massive internal structure was a stark contrast to even the well-lit upper levels of the Dam. The small group then met up with a tall, severe looking man named Tom Banacheck and two soldiers who looked like they came straight off the battlefield. Introductions were exchanged and they were taken to a hangar with the first ever alien discovered: Megatron. Alyssa wasn't sure what her original mental image of the Decepticon leader was, but this was much worse. Encased in layers of ice, the sharp edges of metal gave him a deadly, sinister look that made her want to bolt from the room and never look back.

"Dear God. What is this?" asked the United States Defense Secretary Keller. Alyssa could see him staring in disbelief at the face of destruction.

Banacheck led them closer to the unconscious alien, seemingly unfazed by the fact that he was mere feet away from the one who had single-handedly led his own planet to it's destruction. "We think when he made his approach over the north pole, our gravitational field screwed up his telemetry. He crashed in the ice, probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934." He explained.

"We call him NBE-1." Simmons added briskly.

Alyssa was astounded. They really had no idea of the evil they had sitting in the basement of a national monument. She looked over to the Banacheck and grabbed his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. "Do you have any idea of the danger you have put everyone in? You need to get everyone out of here, now!" She exclaimed loudly, causing everyone but the teens with her to look at the young nurse in alarm.

Banacheck gently removed her hand and tried to reassure the group. "Ma'am, NBE-1 has been contained here for over seventy years without any issue, I don't think anything bad will happen-."

At that point, Sam quietly interrupted. "Well, sir, I don't mean to correct you on everything you think you know, but- I mean, that's Megatron. He's the leader of the Decepticons."

"He's been in cryostasis since 1935." Banacheck reiterated again, slightly annoyed now. "But your great-great-grandfather made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind.

"Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age. The microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars, all reverse-engineered by studying him. NBE-1." Simmons boasted to them.

"But that's not-"

"NBE-1. That's what we call it." Simmons barked, getting right into the brunette woman's face.

Thankfully, before the standoff could go any further, Secretary Keller stepped in with his own anger. "And you didn't think the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?" He growled, pointing to the grey monstrosity looming over them.

"Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security."

"Well you got one now!" The secretary barked. At this moment, Alyssa decided that she liked the older man very much.

"So why Earth?" One of the soldiers asked. He was smart, she could see that much, and he was used to being in command. Looking closer, she could see the name 'Lennox' stitched onto his uniform.

"It's the Allspark." Sam answered bluntly.

"Allspark? What is that?"

"Well, yeah, they came here looking for some sort of cube-looking thing. Anyway, mister NBE-1 here, a.k.a. Megatron, that's what they call him, who's pretty much the harbinger of death, wants to use the Cube to transform human technology to take over the universe. That's their plan." Sam explained, his arms crossed loosely in front of him. The smoke from the liquid nitrogen being sprayed on the captured Decpticon leader swirled around them, making Alyssa shiver. Noticing Mikaela shaking next to her in only a tank top, Alyssa slid off her green jacket and handed it to the teen. She looked at Alyssa with surprise, never having been offered something like this before. "Are you sure?" Mikaela asked, hesitant to accept the small act of kindness.

Alyssa smiled gently and pushed the coat further toward her. "Yes, I'm sure. It is pretty cold in here, and that skimpy thing can't be very warm." She said as Mikaela slid the item of clothing on. "I would like it back though. Not now, but eventually," she said with a grin, making the girl smile.

Sam's voice brought them back to their grim situation very quickly. "Yeah... You guys know where it is, don't you? The Allspark?"

They all looked toward Banacheck in alarm, and Alyssa prayed that they weren't so stupid to keep Megatron and the Allspark in the same building.

Banacheck sighed in defeat. "Follow me."

Alyssa smacked her forehead.

"NO! Stop! What are you doing?!" Alyssa cried, seeing Simmons grab a switch that led to the container holding the tiny creature.

"Oh... He's breaking the box." The agent said nonchalantly, and hit the switch.

A bright flash of light nearly blinded those in the room and by the time they could all see again, the small cybertronian lay dead in the chamber. "No..." Alyssa whispered brokenly, tears welling in her eyes as she saw the tiny body crackling and twitching. She ripped off her glasses and ran up to the glass box, ignoring the cries of protest and tried to open the container, hardly noticing as she was pulled away by Lennox. She stopped struggling as she realized the soldier wasn't going to let her go while she was still fighting.

Seeing that she had stopped lashing out, Lennox released her slowly, trying to keep her calm. "There's nothing you can do for him now," he said softly, trying to reassure her.

Still, she walked away from him and over to the agent, who was grinning smugly at her. Walking right up to him, she kneed him in the gut before slamming his nose down onto her thigh. He groaned as he sunk to the ground, not seeing the woman kneel down on the ground in front of him with a venomous look in her eyes. "You are one sick son of a bitch. Life is to be respected and treated as such, not just thrown away because you think it's convenient." She growled dangerously. At that, she got up and walked over to Sam and put her hand around him and Mikaela. "Come on. Let's find that car of yours," she said, leading the two of them out of the room, leaving the others to deal with the bleeding man on the floor.

Ratchet was beginning to piss him off.

After his engine stalled for the third time on the way to the Hoover Dam, the yellow medic kept pestering him, threatening to tell Optimus of his condition if he didn't 'slow his aft down'.

 _Yeah right_ he thought. _We have a couple of humans and a brother to save._

And that's how they drove for almost an hour, with Jazz struggling to keep his internal systems from crashing while Ratchet jabbered in his

"Autobots, I have just received a transmission from Bumblebee." Optimus pinged them over their comm's.

"Bee?! What'd he say? Is he safe?" Ironhide asked frantically, almost slamming to a complete halt on the highway in shock. The action nearly sent Jazz careening off the road, and it took him a moment to restart his engine after it stalled _again._

"Yes, Bumblebee is fine. He also has the humans with him, as well as the Allspark."

"And he's ALONE? With the ALLSPARK?!" Ratchet roared. "Are you all glitched? What if Decepticons show up? You all know he will put the well-being of the humans with him before himself, even if it cost the Allspark, or his life," he said, knowing full well the nature of the gentle scout.

"He won't be alone. Jazz will meet up with him to provide backup if something does happen while he rendezvous with the rest of us," Optimus explained.

"That might not be the best option. Jazz is-"

"I'll do it, Prime." Jazz interrupted Ratchet, not about to let him spill all his problems to their leader, especially since the battle for the fate of their race, their home, was clearly imminent.

"We trust you Jazz. Take care of them." The Prime ordered as Jazz spun off the road and headed off to the coordinates given to him by Optimus.

Alyssa sat in the back seat of the Camero with probably the most powerful alien artifact in the universe.

Not really a sentence she ever thought would be uttered in her lifetime.

After they had found and freed Bee from the sick bastards at Sector 7 and secured the Allspark, their small group decided to meet up with the soldiers in Mission City, and take the rest of the Autobots with them to take a stand against the Decepticons. At the moment, Alyssa, Sam, Mikaela, and Bumblebee were only a few minutes out from meeting up with Jazz, who would take them to the rest of the Autobots, who would then be going to Mission City.

As they pulled off the highway, Alyssa could see the small figure of who she assumed was Jazz waiting for them in the distance, just beyond a rocky outcropping. At first, she was happy to see him waiting, happy to see that he was alright, but that feeling quickly soured and turned into an increasing feeling of anxiety the closer they got to the waiting mech.

Was he going to be angry at her for leaving him, for ignoring the only request he had ever asked of her?

The Allspark next to her was a blissfully cool, solid presence that gave her a mental anchor. Her fingers traced the patterns on the small cube and she didn't even realize they had stopped until she heard the front doors slam shut as Sam and Mikaela jumped out of the front seat. Bee whirred gently at her in an unspoken question. "You... Good Darlin'?" He asked through the radio.

She shook her head briefly, and her eyes became clearer. "Yeah Bee, I'm fine. I just... I just spaced out there for a minute." As the brunette opened the door, she remembered the small metallic cube, still buckled into the center seat. "Hey, Bumblebee? Can I just leave the cargo with you?"

"You're safe with me sweetheart."

"Thanks. I really didn't think it would be a good idea to bring something like that out into the open." Alyssa closed the door and moved away from the Camero as he transformed, stretching before he motioned for the three humans in his care to stay out of sight while he made sure the coast was clear. They watched as the yellow scout pulled out his cannon and disappeared around the corner. Sam sighed and sagged against the stone, taking the opportunity to sit and rest his eyes and Mikaela joined him, resting her head on his shoulder as his arm slipped around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. Alyssa grinned despite the anxiety roiling within her. They really were adorable. She wished she had her phone so she could take a picture of the scene. And Sam reminded her so much of Jonathan.

Jonathan.

She felt so bad for leaving him like that. But he deserved better than her; he deserved so much better. He deserved someone who wasn't afraid of other people, someone who could go to social events with him and have fun, someone who could give him the family he wanted so badly, someone who wasn't so afraid to love him back. Someone who wasn't her. So Alyssa took a deep breath and ran her hands over her face before running her fingers through her knotted hair to try to contain the mess, knowing full well that a few tears had escaped beforehand. And the growing pit of anxiety in her stomach certainly wasn't helping her mental state either, so her dark hair became the focus of her attention, if only to take her mind off of the frustratingly negative thoughts that kept running through her head. So she worked her fingers through the knots, patiently pulling them apart and humming a tune to herself while she worked. When that job was done and Bee still wasn't back, Alyssa decided to braid the now untangled mop to keep it out of her way, closing her eyes to focus on her self-appointed task and she was nearly done before a pair of baby-blue optics not even a foot away from her face nearly scared her shitless. "WAH! Bee, what are you doing?!" The poor woman shrieked and swatted at him, backing up so quickly that she fell on her butt and nearly smacking her head on a rock nearly as big as her. While she tried to tie off her braid, she could hear his concerned electronic beeping as she sat on the ground "I'm fine Bee. You just startled me, that's all," Alyssa reassured him, still concentrating on her hair and the obnoxious hair tie. There was, what she assumed, a sigh of relief before he emitted a sharp, accusatory sound to someone behind him.

"What? Ah toldja it would get a reaction out of her."

At that voice, Alyssa's blood froze in her veins. Looking up slowly, she saw the towering form of Jazz smirking playfully at her. "Heya, Ace."

"Hey Jazz." She answered quietly, not meeting his optics.

Seeing how upset she looked, Jazz turned to the young scout next to him. "Bee, we need ta get goin', especially if Megatron is loose. Take Sam and his girl with you, and I'll take our human medic here and we'll catch up with you," Jazz instructed firmly. Bee whirred in reluctant agreement, and moved to wake up the sleeping teens. But Alyssa was already there, gently shaking Mikaela awake before moving to prod Sam into consciousness. The two giants just watched as this small woman approached the younglings of this world with such tenderness and care, even though she was under no obligation to watch over them. And from everything Bee had told him, Jazz was positive that everything she had done for the kids, for their team, was in their best interests, at the risk of her own freedom and safety.

So why was she so reluctant to meet his eyes?

"Bee, they're up." Alyssa alerted them. Looking back to the kids before ushering them into the waiting scout, Alyssa gave them each a hug and made sure they were safe inside Bee before turning to Jazz, still not looking him in the eye. " I guess it's time to get going?"

His only answer was to quickly transform and hold the door open for her. "Ya gonna get in?"

Alyssa let a small grin slip onto her face as she quickly got into the passenger seat. "Let's roll than."

With that, both cars revved their engines and sped across the desert, sending up clouds of dust behind them.

 **Hello again! I just wanted to give a big thanks to SunnySides, Mysine, Guest 1, and Guest 2, who left a review on Chapter 4. I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to leave a review, it means a lot. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi everyone! I know it has been so long without a proper update, and I am already a month late from when I said I would give you an update, but here it is! This was hard for me to write, for multiple reasons that will become clear in the very near future. I did have to change a few things in order to fit with my story, so hopefully it worked out okay. Right now, I want to give a big thanks to all of these wonderful people who have left a review in the past year:**

 **S.L Samahin, Sevvus,Jazzilynn Hall, jgoss, Storygirl747, SunnySides, and Guests. Thank you all so much, all of your feedback really means a lot! Now, onto the story!**

So, they were on the road yet again.

While the next to them was an alien robot, containing two teenagers and a small cube that held an incalculable amount of energy and brazenly defied the law of the conservation of mass.

And here they were.

With yet another suffocating, awkward silence that threatened to swallow Alyssa whole.

The only sound was the _thud_ of Jazz's tires over the uneven pavement and the muffled roar of his engine. Alyssa fidgeted in the seat, picking at her clothes and twisting her hands, preferring to knot her fingers instead of addressing the elephant weighing on her soul. "Umm-"

"Look-" Both of them stopped, waiting for the other to speak. "You first," Jazz insisted.

Alyssa twisted the end of her braid, guilt and fear nearly ready to lock up her voice. "I-I just wanted to know if you were angry with me. After what I did at the ravine." Her voice had begun to pick up in speed and intensity, clearly becoming anxious. "Because I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry, I just wanted to help and it was so painful to just watch all that happen-"

"Ace, Ace calm down! Ah'm not angry!"

Her dark eyes widened in shock, and she blinked owlishly. "You're not?"

"Nah, not at all. Ah was worried, that's for sure, but not mad; never mad at'cha." She could feel the seat belt tighten reassuringly around her, almost like a hug. "Jus' try not ta do that again, alright? Ya nearly gave me a spark attack!"

"Can you guys even get those?"

"Ace..." Alyssa's eyes flashed in amusement, as she could actually hear the eye-roll in his voice.

"Ok, I can try. No promises though."

"That's all ah can ask for."

"Good, 'cause that's all I can give." Now that her brain had a moment to think, she could tell him the information that had been bothering her since Jazz met with them in the desert. "Jazz, he's awake. Megatron."

Jazz was quiet for a few moments before replying. "It's okay, Ace. We know. Bee sent out a transmission right before he left, telling us what happened."

Alyssa slumped back in the seat, assurance and a bit of hair making an appearance on her face. Blowing the bit of dark curls away from her eyes, the exhausted woman tipped her head back and let her head rest on the seat behind her. "Good," she said, a sigh escaping her lips as she voiced her relief at his words. "Good. I really _really_ didn't want to be the bearer of bad news." Another pause sat in the air, and Jazz decided he had enough.

"Have I ever told you about the time Bee got his doorwing stuck in the elevator door?"

"What? No way, wouldn't that hurt him? Why would you think that's funny?" Alyssa asked, concern written all over her face.

"Naw, just listen to the story, it will all make sense then." He reassured her, trying to allay her fears for the yellow bot. "Come on, it's not that bad, really!"

"Alright, I'll bite. Tell me." She said with a sigh, giving in to his pleas.

"Okay, so there was this one time while we were on the Ark…"

A small smile crossed her face as he was talking, his gentle voice lulling her tired body into a relaxed state she hadn't felt since she left home. And just like a plug had been pulled inside of her, all the anxious energy that had been keeping her awake and functioning began to rush out, leaving her snoring softly against the seat.

A loud roar jolted Alyssa from her rest. Her brown eyes flew open in panic and she could feel the ground beneath them shake violently. "Jazz, what the hell is going on?" She shrieked, not quite awake and able to process her surroundings. She tried to crane her neck around to see what was going on, but Jazz pulled the seat belt tightly around her, keeping her pinned to the seat as he sped up to avoid the crumbling ground, and to keep her from seeing the destruction around them. But this just made Alyssa struggle harder, and she saw the destruction being caused behind them. She could see Optimus transform behind them and begin to engage the Decepticon, and Alyssa nearly cried as a car hit a hole that had opened in the overpass underneath them. "Jazz, stop! We need to help them!" She cried, tears slipping down her cheeks.

He said nothing, just sped up and sped ahead of Bumblebee.

"Jazz!" Alyssa was starting to become hysterical now. "We need to go help them! People are dying!"

"An' by the time the battle is over, even more will be that way. It's just a fact of life."

"Jazz, my job is to SAVE people-"'

"That's true, but you've got a different mission now. Those people are jus' gonna have ta stick it out on their own."

"But we can help-"

"Look. Afta a few millennia of war, tha biggest thing I've learned is that tha objective MUST come first. No exceptions. It sounds harsh, an' sometimes it is, but failure ta comply can get either you or others killed. You of everyone, as a healer, should understand the necessity of procedure." Jazz admonished firmly, making Alyssa shrink further into her seat, and flush red with shame and misery. Sensing her distress, he decided to try to lighten up a little. The last thing this tired woman needed right now was a scolding. "I trust my leader, my commander, ta not only take care of himself, but the civilians around him. I can't promise there won't be casualties, but ah can promise ya that he will do everythin' in his power to keep them safe an' outta tha way," he finished. Primus, he hoped he hadn't embarrassed her too much. After all, it was her job to keep the humans in her care safe, and to fix those who were hurting. On top of that, she wasn't a soldier, she never had been. After a lifetime of war himself, Jazz sometimes forgot that not everyone around him was familiar with military procedure.

Things were quiet again and Alyssa had turned her back away from the driver's seat and was staring out the window. He could feel her small body continue to shake, and her uneven breathing and intermittent sniffles told him that she was probably crying. _It was a necessary fact she needed to know._ He told himself in a futile battle to justify his own actions. But the human in his cabin was still distraught, and clearly heartbroken over his decision to leave, and take her with him. _Was I too harsh? Was it too much for her at once? Could I have given her the wrong idea of what we stand for?_ Jazz thought, before a small voice grabbed his attention. "Are you sure he's going to be alright? Optimus, I mean," Alyssa asked softly, looking back at the overpass where they left the Autobot leader to fight Bonecrusher. Alone.

Jazz tightened the seat belt around her and he slowed down next to Bumblebee, sandwiching the scout between himself and Ironhide. "Boss-bot will be fine, Ace. He's held his own against worse for millennia, he'll be alright." He reassured her, opting to leave out the fact that the hunchbacked Decepticon was a disgustingly _dirty_ fighter, and would most likely try to use the humans around them against the Autobot leader.

But if he knew Optimus at all, he would try to finish the fight before the unfortunate humans caught in the fray could be used against him.

Not even twenty minutes later, they arrived in the center of Mission City. By the time Alyssa had gotten out of Jazz's alt mode, Lennox was already barking orders, and setting up a perimeter in the intersection. Jogging over to him with Jazz rolling close behind her, Alyssa was trying to put herself into her Work mindset. No feelings, no worries, just get the facts and formulate a strategy.

The panic can come later.

Looking around, she found Lennox and the man that was with him at the Hoover Dam. The army captain was ordering people around and it looked like he was trying to set up a barricade in the road and surrounding intersection. The other man didn't seem to be saying much, so mustering up the last bit of courage in her depleted reserves, she took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and marched forward. She straightened her back as she tapped him on the shoulder, and she pulled every ounce of authority she had into her voice."Hey! What's the plan here? If the city is about to become an alien war zone, shouldn't we call for some sort of evacuation?" Alyssa asked the man in front of her. Epps was it?

As he turned to face her, Alyssa could feel the small amount of courage she had left flee her body. His face was completely unreadable, and while she was certainly not short, Epps was a great deal taller than her, and having a six foot tall soldier who looks like he could bench press you in his sleep staring down at you is most certainly unnerving.

After what seemed like forever, he finally nodded and looked up at Lennox. "Hey man, have we started the civilian evac yet?" he asked in a low, rough voice.

Lennox scrubbed his hands over his face before rummaging around the compartments in the car. "Not yet, communications are out. Here, I got shortwave radios, use one of those."

"Wait. What am I supposed to do with this?" Alyssa asked as a massive radio was tossed in her direction.

"Nothing. Hand it to Epps, he'll know what to do."

"Oh." She was about to hand the radio over but it was quickly plucked out of her hand and scrutinized by the taller man. He raised a skeptical eyebrow and turned the equipment around in his hands for a minute before glaring at the Captain.

"Man, what the hell am I supposed to do with these? This is, like, ancient!" Epps complained loudly, all while trying to get the frequency to adjust to where he needed it.

Alyssa could only watch in uncomfortable amusement at Lennox's exasperation. "Well, use them anyways! It's all we got!" He barked while ordering the other soldiers around again.

This rebuttal didn't stop Epps from grumbling though. "This is like RadioShack dinosaur radios or something, man. I'm only gonna get 20 or 30 miles out of these things." Lennox shot him one final glare as he finally found the frequency he was looking for, pointedly ignoring Lennox, Alyssa noted. "Are there any aircraft orbiting the city?"

There was no response, and for a few minutes the three of them just stood in the middle of the street, waiting for a response as the soldiers around them were a flurry of motion, setting up barricades, evacuating buildings, and arming themselves to the teeth.

The high-pitched whine of an engine grabbed Alyssa's attention, and she nudged Lennox next to her, pointing to the sound. "It looks like there's a fighter at twelve o'clock." Lennox looked to where she was pointing, squinted a bit, and then gave her an incredulous look. "What? Is that not what you were looking for? Wrong plane?"

"No, not at all. That's exactly what we were looking for. Good eye." Lennox said, clapping her on the back. And if anyone brought up that she stumbled forward, she would vehemently deny it. "All right, I want planes for air cover and get Black Hawks on station to extract that Cube. You got it? Let's go!" Lennox barked, shooting orders with Epps right behind him.

At some point during this exchange, Alyssa noticed that Jazz had transformed, and was now staring intently at the incoming aircraft. He almost looked puzzled, and she was curious as to why. Up until now, he had always seemed calm and in-control. Even when she and the kids had been taken Sector 7, he acted as if there had been a plan in place and was following protocol. But now he was exuding a nervous energy and it was feeding her own anxiety. Clenching her fists to keep them from shaking, she edged closer to the silver 'bot and gently tapped his leg to get his attention. "Hey are you okay?" Alyssa asked, concern bleeding into her voice. When he didn't respond, she tapped again. "Jazz? Are you in there? You're starting to scare me a little bit."

Jazz looked down at her, and gave her a small grin. "Ah, I'm fine Ace. Just waitin' for the Boss to arrive."

Alyssa knew he was lying to her. She could hear it in his voice, and feel it in her bones. Just like with her brother. Just like with Jonathan. But pushing him would only cause him to clam up even more, so Alyssa decided to drop it, even though her instincts were screaming at her.

Her head whipped around as Lennox began to shout orders, and Epps began firing off coordinates and orders. "Raptor, Raptor, do you copy? We have you visual. Green smoke is the mark. Provide air cover and vector Black Hawks for extraction."

Ironhide suddenly transformed faster than Alyssa had ever seen. "It's Starscream!"

"Please tell me you copy." Epps said over the radio, clearly not expecting an answer anymore.

Alyssa on the other hand, was furious. "You knew, didn't you?" she said, looking up at Jazz in horror. "You knew and didn't say anything. You let them come right to us!"

"No, the problem is that I couldn't tell! I need ta see this stuff, and I couldn't!" He was as close to panic as Alyssa had ever seen him, and it terrified her. "Right now, you need to hide. Get behind me, now." She still stood there, horror etched onto her face as she saw the incoming decepticon. "Ace, get behind me NOW!" He stepped in front of her, pinning her between himself and the building behind him, hoping to shield her from the worst of the blast. Alyssa tried to move to a different spot, but Jazz wouldn't move. Her heart was racing, and she felt close to passing out, but something caught her eye, and it caused her to freeze.

Around the sheets of Autobot armor and the brick wall Jazz had strategically placed her, she saw Sam, who was still standing in the middle of the street, seemingly paralyzed by the approaching missiles. In a very impulsive, stupid, split-second decision, Alyssa darted in between a small gap in Jazz's feet and ran toward the stunned teen. She barely heard Jazz over the roar of the missiles and and the blood pounding through her ears as she tackled the boy to the ground, but couldn't protect herself from the searing explosion. And as the blast sent her flying, the sound of her body cracking against a pipe was the last conscious thing she heard before blacking out.

The first thing Alyssa noticed was how bright everything was. Way too bright, and WAY to fast. Why was anything moving at all? Wasn't she on the ground? And why was everything so blurry? To her knowledge, she didn't hit her head... Blinking rapidly to clear some of the fuzz out of her vision, Alyssa gingerly moved to assess the damage but before she even took a breath, a blinding, crippling pain shot through her side. Gasping for air, she leaned up against the alley wall she was flung into, and looked down.

The left side of her tee-shirt was shredded from her fall, and the skin underneath was coated in blood and gravel, with small contact burns littering the area around it. Touching it gently, she softly pressed her fingertips across her side until she found what was causing the horrific pain. The the four ribs in the middle of her back felt completely broken, and since she wasn't spitting blood, she figured it was safe to assume they were all clean breaks. Luckily for her, everything else only seemed bruised. She also felt a nice-sized knob growing on the side of her head, probably from where she hit the ground. Thankfully, those seemed to be her only major injuries from the blast. She could also vaguely hear Jazz shouting for her, and briefly saw him buzz past the alley she was currently in. "Hey! Jazz, over here

"Ace? Alyssa? ALY-"

"Quit shouting! I'm right over here," Alyssa croaked loudly, coughing a bit afterwards.

Damn broken ribs. The movies never show how painful this shit is.

A familiar head poked around the corner, and Alyssa could feel the waves of relief coming off of his spark shard, but the look on his face was enough to put the fear of God into her. His blue eyes blazed and he looked like the Angel of Death.

If the Angel was a fifteen foot tall alien robot.

His visor darkened, and Alyssa had to swallow a bit of her fear. Goddamnit, Jazz was not going to hurt her! "What did I tell ya about those stupid stunts of yours?" He growled, crouching as low as he could in order to get to her level.

She coughed a bit and looked frantically around him. "Is Sam okay?"

"You nearly died, and ya want to know how the KID is?"

"Yeah, because I almost DIED hauling him out of the way! How is he?"

The tired sigh that came out of Jazz was almost worth the stunt itself. "The kid's fine, just a bit banged up. It's YOU that's the problem right now."

She groaned as she moved closer to him, trying to alleviate some of her pain. Realistically, she knew he couldn't do anything for her, but she just felt safer the nearer she was to him, even if he was furious with her. "My middle name is Stupid, what did you expect," she moaned, giving him a pained grin.

Sensing her discomfort and his own exasperated anger with her completely forgotten, he tried to stop her from moving by boxing her against the wall with his hands, much like a child would. To his surprise though, she slowly leaned into the palms of his hands, the natural curve of her body fitting perfectly with the curve of his claws. "Ace, what're ya doing?" He asked, amusement clear in his voice. He had tried to keep the shock at her unflinching trust in him out of his voice, but he wasn't sure if he completely succeeded.

"I'm resting. I was just flung a good fifteen feet into a metal pipe, I broke some ribs, it hurts to breathe, and you're warm. It's helping right now, so just let me be for a few," she whined.

Jazz couldn't help but smile. She reminded him so much of _her_ in that moment that it startled him. "Ace, I know ya hurt, but ya got ta move. Reinforcements are here, and ya got ta go."

THAT caused her to sit up. "Jazz, only an airstrike was called in. No one else called for backup," she said, picking her head up off of his hand. She poked her head out from around his body, and saw a giant tank rolling down the street. Seeing Lennox talking to some men behind the concrete barricade, she called over to him. "Lennox, did you ask for any tanks when you called in the airstrike?" She asked apprehensively, her stomach sinking as the machine rolled over a parked car.

"Nope." He seemed to deflate before steeling himself against the concrete barricade. "Ok. You stay back there, and you don't move, got it?" Alyssa noticed his rifle was beginning to shake in his hands.

She tried to give him a reassuring smile"Understood. Trust me, I do NOT want to be a smear on the pavement."

"Have you ever shot a gun before?"

"It was a while ago, but I have. Why?"

"Take this then," he skidded a glock across the pavement over to her spot against the building. She picked it up apprehensively, checking to see if the safety was still on. "It might not do much damage, but hopefully it will give you some time to escape if things get bad."

"Oh!" She said, gingerly holding the weapon in her hands."Uh, thanks?" She looked over to her guardian, and noticed some energon on his armor. "Jazz, you'll be okay, right? You look like you're hurt again."

"I'll be fine, Ace. None of it's mine anyways."

The look of complete skepticism on her face was enough to get a small chuckle of him, despite the situation. "Just relax Ace, I've taken out worse goonies than him."

"Okay, just don't leave me hanging here. You still need to take me back home."

"Ace-" His spark hurt for her, knowing that his chances of surviving this battle were slim at best.

"Promise me you will still be here to take me home at the end of all this. Promise me." Her voice cracked at the end, and it only hurt him more.

He sighed, and he knew this was going to be just one more broken promise to add to his record. "Alright Ace, okay. I promise."

That seemed to be the right answer, as her shoulders slumped like a weight had just been lifted off of them. "Good. Now kick some ass." She gave him a small grin, and a thumbs up, but it was cut short as a hail of bullets peppered the wall in front of her, causing her to shriek and dive for cover deeper in the alleyway.

"Come on, Decepticon punk!" Jazz taunted, and a shell exploded across the street from her. The noise was deafening, and Alyssa wasn't sure how much more she could take. She trusted Jazz to keep her safe, but accidents happen in a war zone, and she didn't want to become a casualty. There was more gunfire, more growling and shouting, and more explosions, but Alyssa didn't move. She couldn't move. Her body had locked itself into a small ball on the pavement, with her back facing the ongoing battle. Her back was on fire, and Alyssa used that pain to keep her mind off of the chaos around her. She didn't even try to move until the sound of battle had quieted to a dull roar. Taking a risk, she scooted toward the end of the alley, and nearly cried in relief at seeing Jazz in one piece. Now all he needed to do was stay that way.

"Damn," Jazz cursed quietly. Now that Devastator was down and out, sharp, blinding impulses caused him to look down at his injured leg. The pain beginning to shut down the limb, and the wound that had barely begun to heal was now torn wide open from a few well-aimed blows from the dead Decepticon. It was now steadily leaking energon down his leg, looking even worse than before. Taking a moment to observe the chaos around him, his optics quickly found the human he didn't know he was looking for. She was covered in dust and blood, but she was _alive_ and breathing. Through her small fractal of his spark, Jazz could feel her fear and pain, oh Primus was she in pain, but the absolute relief of seeing him standing there seemed to numb that sharp ache she was feeling. Why would she be relieved to see him still there?

The chillingly familiar roar of a Cybertronian engine snapped him out of his thoughts, and he felt his spark drop in his chest. Now he was royally screwed. "It's Megatron! Retreat!" Now that the warlord had landed, he had no choice but to fight. Moving away from the alley he know Alyssa was down, he was able to get a few sloppy shots in before a pulse from the decepticon leader's arm cannon caught him across the chest plates, sending him crashing into the ground.

As Megatron began to get closer to the soldiers and and himself, Jazz knew he only had two options. He could run and try to protect the humans around him, still leaving all of them horribly exposed to the attacking Decepticons and still probably die from energon loss and his other wounds, or he can stand and fight, giving Sam and the others time to save the Cube and take down this tyrant once and for all, but ensure his own death in the process. It only took a single glance at the terrified woman behind him, the woman who literally held a part of his heart and soul, to confirm what he already knew what must happen.

All he could do now is hope his Ace would forgive him as he launched himself at the genocidal warlord for the last time.

Her heart fell in her chest and she wanted to throw up when she saw Jazz in the hands of Megatron. She didn't hear herself scream as he was launched into the air in the clutches of Megatron. And so Alyssa stumbled across the alleyway, down a block of devastation and carnage, trying to ignore the burning pain across her chest as she struggled to get air in her lungs as she moved as quickly as she could to find her guardian. She could faintly hear Jazz yelling at the massive alien, and she looked up just in time to see him as he was callously ripped in half, the horrific groaning and tearing of metal turning her blood to ice. "JAZZ!" She screamed as her knees gave out from underneath her, the world around her fading away as his body came crashing to the ground in front of her, throwing up dust and shaking the earth. The borrowed gun that was in her dusty and blood-soaked hands shook as his flickering blue eyes locked with hers. and time seemed to freeze around them. She didn't even feel the sharp jar of her bones grinding against each other as she lurched forward and dropped to the ground, unable to even move the hair that had fallen across her face. Her feet slipped and fell out from underneath her as the pool of glowing, viscous fluid grew around her protector's broken body. "Nn-no. Jazz, you can't leave, you promised..."

"Sorry… Ace…" He gasped out, managing a small smile for her. "Ah... can't take... ya... home..."

She shook her head violently, the blood rushing out of her face as she realized what was happening. As her pale, torn hands gently grasped his faceplates, blue mixed with red in an ugly smear across the cold metal. Hot, burning tears soon joined it as her heart began to shatter into pieces. "Don't you dare go... Don't leave me alone again..." But it was already far too late. The blue light of his eyes flashed once more underneath the cracked visor, before going dark for good.

And then he was gone.

 **Hold on! NOBODY PANIC! There is still so much more to this story! This is supposed to be a fix-it after all! Alyssa and Jazz are so not done with each other, and I still have so much pain to still inflict on them :) After this chapter, I won't keep you waiting too long. Part of the reason it took as long as it did was because I wanted to have the next chapter prepared and ready to go in a timely fashion so I wouldn't leave you guys hanging for months at a time, as well as the fact that I just wasn't satisfied for a long time as to how this turned out. As I found out, I suck at writing action scenes! So I will be working on that in order to improve in the future, and if any of you have some suggestions or tips for me, I would love to hear them! But for now, hopefully this wasn't too bad for all of you. Anyways everyone, thanks so much for your continued support, please take care, don't panic, and I'll see you all very soon!**


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